In this paper, we propose to manipulate a nonrelativistic electron beam during its emission and acceleration to create nanobunched electrons. Specifically, we simulate the acceleration of a structured electron beam emitted from a multiring photocathode in a photoinjector and show that, after acceleration, such a transversely structured beam can be transformed into a hollow beam with a longitudinal density modulation in the petahertz frequency range. Our theoretical study shows that, in the far-field zone, the coherent radiation of the bunched hollow beam approaches that of a similarly bunched solid beam in the paraxial limit.

• Received 4 October 2020
• Revised 3 April 2021
• Accepted 27 April 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevAccelBeams.24.052801

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society