Non-diffracting multi-\ufeffelectron vortex beams balancing their electron\u2013electron interactions

Maor Mutzafi,Gal Harari,Mordechai Segev,Ido Kaminer

doi:10.1038/s41467-017-00651-z

Maor Mutzafi, Gal Harari + Show 2 more

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The wave-like nature of electrons has been known for almost a century, but only in recent years has the ability to shape the wavefunction of EBeams (Electron-Beams) become experimentally accessible. Various EBeam wavefunctions have been demonstrated, such as vortex, self-accelerating, Bessel EBeams etc. However, none has attempted to manipulate multi-electron beams, because the repulsion between electrons rapidly alters the beam shape. Here, we show how interference effects of the quantum wavefunction describing multiple electrons can be used to exactly balance both the repulsion and diffraction-broadening. We propose non-diffracting wavepackets of multiple electrons, which can also carry orbital angular momentum. Such wavefunction shaping facilitates the use of multi-electron beams in electron microscopy with higher current without compromising on spatial resolution. Simulating the quantum evolution in three-dimensions and time, we show that imprinting such wavefunctions on electron pulses leads to shape-preserving multi-electrons ultrashort pulses. Our scheme applies to any beams of charged particles, such as protons and ion beams.

Highlights

The wave-like nature of electrons has been known for almost a century, but only in recent years has the ability to shape the wavefunction of electron beams (EBeams) (Electron-Beams) become experimentally accessible
We find the nonlinear non-diffracting EBeam wavefunctions that can carry orbital angular momentum (OAM)
Simulating the evolution of these beams shows that the range within which our non-diffracting multi-electron beams remain with negligible diffraction broadening can be very large, and proves their robustness to noise and to deviations from non-ideal launch conditions

Summary

Introduction

The wave-like nature of electrons has been known for almost a century, but only in recent years has the ability to shape the wavefunction of EBeams (Electron-Beams) become experimentally accessible. The noise does not have any noticeable effect on the evolution of the non-diffracting wavefunction of the multi-electron beam, and the propagation dynamics is robust to deviations from non-ideal launch conditions.

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