A microwave chip-based beam splitter for low-energy guided electrons

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel microwave chip-based beam splitter for low-energy electrons, enabling efficient splitting of electron beams into two separated paths, with potential applications in quantum matter-wave optics.

Contribution

The authors introduce a microwave pseudopotential technique on a planar chip to split low-energy electron beams, a new approach in electron beam manipulation.

Findings

Beam splitting achieved for electrons up to 3 eV energy.

Splitting results match particle tracking simulations.

Output beams separated by 5 mm lateral spacing.

Abstract

We demonstrate the splitting of a low-energy electron beam by means of a microwave pseudopotential formed above a planar chip substrate. Beam splitting arises from smoothly transforming the transverse guiding potential for an electron beam from a single-well harmonic confinement into a double-well, thereby generating two separated output beams with $5\,$mm lateral spacing. Efficient beam splitting is observed for electron kinetic energies up to $3\,$eV, in excellent agreement with particle tracking simulations. We discuss prospects of this novel beam splitter approach for electron-based quantum matter-wave optics experiments.