Scattering of twisted relativistic electrons by atoms

TL;DR

This paper studies how high-energy twisted electrons scatter off atoms, revealing that their angular distribution and polarization differ from plane waves, offering a new way to analyze relativistic vortex electron beams.

Contribution

It provides detailed relativistic calculations of Mott scattering for twisted electrons, demonstrating their potential as diagnostic tools for relativistic vortex beams.

Findings

Scattering patterns differ significantly from plane-wave electrons.

Polarization and angular distributions are sensitive to beam parameters.

Mott scattering can reveal information about electron angular momentum components.

Abstract

The Mott scattering of high-energetic twisted electrons by atoms is investigated within the framework of the first Born approximation and Dirac's relativistic equation. Special emphasis is placed on the angular distribution and longitudinal polarization of the scattered electrons. In order to evaluate these angular and polarization properties we consider two experimental setups in which the twisted electron beam collides with either a single well-localized atom or macroscopic atomic target. Detailed relativistic calculations have been performed for both setups and for the electrons with kinetic energy from 10 keV to 1000 keV. The results of these calculations indicate that the emission pattern and polarization of outgoing electrons differ significantly from the scattering of plane-wave electrons and can be very sensitive to the parameters of the incident twisted beam. In particular, it is shown that the angular- and polarization-sensitive Mott measurements may reveal valuable information about, both the transverse and longitudinal components of the linear momentum and the projection of the total angular momentum of twisted electron states. Thus, the Mott scattering emerges as a diagnostic tool for the relativistic vortex beams.