Science

Plain silicon grating reveals a hidden 'twist' in light from electron beams

Source: Phys.org · Published 23 Oct 2026, 20:20

In 1953, two physicists showed that an electron beam skimming past a grating emits light whose color depends only on the electron's speed and the grating's spacing. Known as Smith-Purcell radiation, this phenomenon has become a useful tool for building compact, tunable light sources and tracking particle beams without touching them.

We are a news aggregator: we show the headline and a short excerpt with a link to the original source. We never republish full articles.