Trapping of charged particles by Bessel beams

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel method for trapping charged particles using electromagnetic Bessel beams, focusing on electric field configurations that create potential minima along the beam axis, offering an alternative to traditional traps.

Contribution

The article presents a new trapping mechanism for charged particles utilizing Bessel beams of electromagnetic radiation, expanding the methods beyond Penning and Paul traps.

Findings

Particles are confined near minimum-energy points in the beam's electric field

Trapping points are located on the beam axis for beams carrying orbital angular momentum

The method emphasizes electric field configurations over magnetic effects

Abstract

There exist two well established methods to trap charged particles: the Penning trap and the Paul trap. The subject of this article is to present a third mechanism for trapping charged particles - trapping by beams of electromagnetic radiation. The essential role is played by the electric field configuration in the plane perpendicular to the beam axis (for nonrelativistic electrons, the magnetic field is less important). Particles are confined to the vicinity of the minimum-energy points. In particular, for beams of electromagnetic radiation carrying orbital angular momentum such points lie on the beam axis.