Vortex particles in axially symmetric fields and applications of the quantum Busch theorem

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that vortex electrons and other charged particles with orbital angular momentum can be conserved and manipulated in axially symmetric electromagnetic fields, with implications for particle acceleration and quantum control.

Contribution

It provides a quantum analysis of vortex particle dynamics in symmetric fields, introduces a quantum Busch theorem, and explores applications in particle acceleration and trapping.

Findings

OAM and emittance are conserved in symmetric fields.

Quantum dynamics relate to a generalized van Cittert-Zernike theorem.

Vortex particles can be manipulated similarly to classical beams.

Abstract

The possibilities to accelerate vortex electrons with orbital angular momentum (OAM) to relativistic energies and to produce vortex ions, protons, and other charged particles crucially depend on whether the OAM is conserved during the acceleration and on how phase space of the wave packet evolves. We show that both the OAM and a mean emittance of the packet, the latter obeying the Schr\"odinger uncertainty relation, are conserved in axially symmetric fields of electric and magnetic lenses, typical for accelerators and electron microscopes, as well as in Penning traps, while a linear approximation of weakly inhomogeneous fields works much better for single packets than for classical beams. We analyze quantum dynamics of the packet's rms radius $\langle\rho^2\rangle$, relate this dynamics to a generalized form of the van Cittert-Zernike theorem, applicable at arbitrary distances from a source and for non-Gaussian packets, and adapt the Courant-Snyder formalism to describe the evolution of the wave packet's phase space. The vortex particles can therefore be accelerated, focused, steered, trapped, and even stored in azimuthally symmetric fields and traps, somewhat analogously to the classical angular-momentum-dominated beams. Moreover, we give a quantum version of the Busch theorem, which states how one can produce vortex electrons with a magnetized cathode during either field- or photoemission, as well as vortex ions and protons by using a magnetized stripping foil employed to change a charge state of ions. Spatial coherence of the packets plays a crucial role in these applications and we provide the necessary estimates for particles of different masses.