Electron diffractive optics based on the magnetic Aharonov–Bohm effect

Abstract

An original description of light and massive particle interference has been recently reported. Double-hole interference is explained in terms of the confinement in spatially structured Lorentzian wells. A spatially structured Lorentzian well consists of an alternating arrangement of confinement and forbidden zones for particles going from the mask to the detector, whose shape is determined by the geometry of the experimental set-up. In this framework, a new description of the magnetic Aharonov–Bohm effect is presented. It is shown that the magnetic flux turns the double-hole mask into an amplitude and phase mask that modifies the spatial distribution of the confinement regions in the well so that an interference fringe shift is produced. The assumption that the vector potential affects the electron action from the source to the detector is not needed. A grating device with a suitable distribution of solenoids is then introduced, and the spatial modulation of the electron beams is obtained by an independent control of the magnetic fluxes. This device behaves as a programmable spatial modulator for electron beams. This phenomenology of the Aharonov–Bohm effect together with the proposed grating device may lay the groundwork for the development of electron diffractive optics.