Ionization Induced by Electron Vortex Beam

Publication Date

4-6-2018

Document Type

Poster

Department

Physics

Mentor

Allison Harris

Mentor Department

Physics

Abstract

Vortex beams are freely propagating beams characterized by their non-zero orbital angular momentum around the propagation direction and phase singularity at the center of the vortex. Their quantized topological structure with spiraling wave fronts has been widely studied in optical contexts, but only recently was it demonstrated that similar vortex beams could be generated with electrons. Electron vortex beams (EVBs) provide unique opportunities for the control and rotation of nanoparticles, improved resolution in electron microscopy, and many other applications. Unfortunately, very little is known about how EVBs interact with individual atoms, and there are no experimental results yet for collisions between EVBs and atoms. There is also very little theoretical work on this topic, with only a handful of studies to date for EVB collisions with hydrogen atoms. If EVBs are to be used for any of the proposed applications, it is crucial to understand how electrons with non-zero angular momentum interact with atoms on a fundamental level. We present here the first theoretical calculations for ionization collisions between electron vortex beams and simple atoms.

Comments

Turpin-undergraduate

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