The interaction between light and matter is one of the heart interactions in nature. The complete visualization of this kind of dynamics requires attosecond resolution in time and atomic resolution in space. Ultrashort and coherent electron pulses are central to achieve this goal. This review surveys the important efforts aimed at generation， phase-space control and characterization of ultrashort electron pulses using various optical fields such as microwave， terahertz radiation and visible light， and mainly summarizes its key breakthrough in four-dimensional ultrafast electron microscopy， which opens up the way for the establishment of “attomicroscopy” to allow the imaging of electron motion in the act. Finally， the development prospects of ultrafast electron research is presented.