'Beaming' energy (i.e. matter) and information (i.e. data) in a most efficient way has inspired science and science fiction equally. In 1960s, lasers were invented allowing us to beam energy and information via light beams having its internal constituents almost perfectly ordered and working as a team. Lasers are intrinsically 'cool', made possible by clever tricks invented by atomic scientists and engineers. To date this feat has not been achieved by beams of charged particles such as electrons which are produced in a very hot, restless state by the mechanisms used to extract them from materials. The electrons embedded in most materials have to overcome a tremendous barrier and climb up and beyond an energy hill which they remember and which they vent off literally by being very unruly, restless and jittery upon their release. A typical electron beam produced in today's laboratories is very hot indeed, comparable to the surface of the sun. This research will develop special and precisely patterned structured materials with features a thousand times smaller than the width of human hair (e.g. carbon nanotube- or Graphene-based structures), immersed in a very high electric field allowing the electrons inside the material to 'tunnel through' the barrier hills effortlessly without climbing them, thus making the released electrons colder and ordered, traveling together in a single file so-to-speak, as a beam of electrons that is so 'cold' that it will act like a particle laser beam. Complex theoretical and computational modeling of 'designer' emitters will go hand-in-hand with state-of-the-art fabrication of such delicate and precise structures and their subsequent testing for performance in the laboratory. Once produced, special effort will have to be made to allow the electrons to remain cold while gaining speed and energy as a beam.
The particular research and development will depend on a collaboration of Northern Illinois University (NIU) with major national and international laboratories and their facilities such as the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Cambridge Graphene Centre (CGC) and US industries. Specially designed samples will be prepared in collaboration with ANL and CGC facilities and will be tested at NIU/FNAL specially designed test facility. The research will open up new areas of scientific investigation and their societal/industrial applications e.g. compact x-ray lasers for 'ultra-fast' science, novel computational possibilities based upon a single quantum of charge and 'spin', three dimensional rapid electron-beam printing of complex unique structures of industrial and medical interest, compact portable sources of light for lithography of novel nano-structures for the electronic chip industry. The activity will inspire inclusive collaboration between scientists, engineers and technologists in research and education and integrate academia, national laboratory and industry for knowledge-based economic wealth creation, integrating the local and national education and outreach programs at NIU inclusive of diversity, minority education and training goals.
