Vacuum Faraday effect for electrons

Greenshields, C., Stamps, R.L. and Franke-Arnold, S. (2012) Vacuum Faraday effect for electrons. New Journal of Physics, 14(10), p. 103040. (doi: 10.1088/1367-2630/14/10/103040)

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Publisher's URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/14/10/103040

Abstract

The optical Faraday effect describes the rotation of linear polarization upon propagation through a medium in the presence of a longitudinal magnetic field. The effect arises from a different phase delay between the right and left handed polarization components of the light. In this paper we predict a Faraday effect for a completely different system: electron vortices. Free electron vortex states were recently observed in transmission electron microscopy experiments, and they introduce new degrees of freedom into the probing of matter with electron beams. We associate a rotation of a vortex superposition with the fact that different phases are acquired by oppositely handed vortices propagating in a magnetic field. We show that, in contrast to the optical Faraday effect, the rotation of the electron beam occurs in vacuum and arises from the intrinsic chirality of the constituent vortex states.

Item Type:Articles
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Stamps, Professor Robert and Franke-Arnold, Professor Sonja and Greenshields, Mr Colin
Authors: Greenshields, C., Stamps, R.L., and Franke-Arnold, S.
College/School:College of Science and Engineering > School of Physics and Astronomy
Journal Name:New Journal of Physics
ISSN:1367-2630
ISSN (Online):1367-2630

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