Interaction of electron vortices and optical vortices with matter and processes of orbital angular momentum exchange

TL;DR

This paper investigates how electron and optical vortices interact with matter, revealing their capabilities to exchange orbital angular momentum with atomic systems, with implications for spectroscopy and molecular studies.

Contribution

It provides a detailed quantum analysis of OAM exchange mechanisms between vortices and matter, highlighting differences between electron and optical vortices in electric dipole transitions.

Findings

Electron vortices can exchange OAM with both electronic and center of mass motions.

Optical vortices exchange OAM only with the center of mass in electric dipole transitions.

Results relate to recent EELS experiments and interactions with chiral molecules.

Abstract

The quantum processes involved in the interaction of matter with, separately, an electron vortex(EV) and an optical vortex (OV) are described, with matter modelled in terms of a neutral two particle atomic system, allowing for both the internal (electronic-type) motion and the gross (center of mass-type) motion of matter to be taken into account. The coupling of the atomic system to the EV is dominated by Coulomb forces, while that of the OV is taken in the $\mathbf{p}\cdot\mathbf{A}$ canonical form which couples $\mathbf{A}$, the transverse vector potential of the optical vortex, to the linear momenta of the two-particle system. An analysis of the dipole active transition matrix element is carried out in each case. The electron vortex is found to be capable of exchanging its orbital angular momentum (OAM) with both the electronic and the center of mass motions of the atomic system in an electric dipole transition. In contrast, for electric dipole transitions the optical vortex is found to be capable of exchanging OAM only with the center of mass. The predictions are discussed with reference to recent experiments on electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) using EVs traversing magnetised iron thin film samples and those involving OVs interacting with chiral molecules.