Nondestructive Measurement of Orbital Angular Momentum for an Electron Beam
arXiv:1701.03199 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.154801
Abstract
Free electrons with a helical phase front, referred to as "twisted" electrons, possess an orbital angular momentum (OAM) and, hence, a quantized magnetic dipole moment along their propagation direction. This intrinsic magnetic moment can be used to probe material properties. Twisted electrons thus have numerous potential applications in materials science. Measuring this quantity often relies on a series of projective measurements that subsequently change the OAM carried by the electrons. In this Letter, we propose a nondestructive way of measuring an electron beam's OAM through the interaction of this associated magnetic dipole with a conductive loop. Such an interaction results in the generation of induced currents within the loop, which are found to be directly proportional to the electron's OAM value. Moreover, the electron experiences no OAM variations and only minimal energy losses upon the measurement, and, hence, the nondestructive nature of the proposed technique.
arXiv comment5 pages, 3 figures, and supplemental material that is comprised of text and 4 figures
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- Efficient molecule discrimination in electron microcopy through an optimized orbital angular momentum sorter
- Conservation laws in quantum noninvasive measurements
- Rotating Gaussian wave packets in weak external potentials
- Automatic alignment of an orbital angular momentum sorter in a transmission electron microscope using a convolution neural network
- Hidden momentum of electrons, nuclei, atoms and molecules
- Exploring the spatial features of electronic transitions in molecular and biomolecular systems by swift electrons
- Paraxial Dirac equation
- Orbital angular momentum and energy loss characterization of plasmonic excitations in metallic nanostructures in TEM