1202.5462 (Gregg M. Gallatin et al.)

Propagation of Vortex Electron Wave Functions in a Magnetic Field    [PDF]

Gregg M. Gallatin, Ben McMorran

The physics of coherent beams of photons carrying axial orbital angular
momentum (OAM) is well understood and such beams, sometimes known as vortex
beams, have found applications in optics and microscopy. Recently electron
beams carrying very large values of axial OAM have been generated. In the
absence of coupling to an external electromagnetic field the propagation of
such vortex electron beams is virtually identical mathematically to that of
vortex photon beams propagating in a medium with a homogeneous index of
refraction. But when coupled to an external electromagnetic field the
propagation of vortex electron beams is distinctly different from photons. Here
we use the exact path integral solution to Schrodingers equation to examine the
time evolution of an electron wave function carrying axial OAM. Interestingly
we find that the nonzero OAM wave function can be obtained from the zero OAM
wave function, in the case considered here, simply by multipling it by an
appropriate time and position dependent prefactor. Hence adding OAM and
propagating can in this case be replaced by first propagating then adding OAM.
Also, the results shown provide an explicit illustration of the fact that the
gyromagnetic ratio for OAM is unity. We also propose a novel version of the
Bohm-Aharonov effect using vortex electron beams.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1202.5462