Generation of Nondiffracting Electron Bessel Beams

Vincenzo Grillo, Ebrahim Karimi, Gian Carlo Gazzadi, Stefano Frabboni, Mark R. Dennis, Robert W. Boyd

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

103 Citations (Scopus)
114 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Almost 30 years ago, Durnin discovered that an optical beam with a transverse intensity profile in the form of a Bessel function of the first order is immune to the effects of diffraction. Unlike most laser beams, which spread upon propagation, the transverse distribution of these Bessel beams remains constant. Electrons also obey a wave equation (the Schrödinger equation), and therefore Bessel beams also exist for electron waves. We generate an electron Bessel beam by diffracting electrons from a nanoscale phase hologram. The hologram imposes a conical phase structure on the electron wave-packet spectrum, thus transforming it into a conical superposition of infinite plane waves, that is, a Bessel beam. We verify experimentally that these beams can propagate for 0.6 m without measurable spreading and can also reconstruct their intensity distributions after being partially obstructed by an obstacle. Finally, we show by numerical calculations that the performance of an electron microscope can be increased dramatically through use of these beams.
Original languageEnglish
Article number011013
Pages (from-to)1-7
Number of pages7
JournalPhysical Review X
Volume4
Issue number1
Early online date30 Jan 2014
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2014

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