Electron round lenses with negative spherical aberration by a tightly focused cylindrically polarized light beam

TL;DR

This paper theoretically demonstrates that tightly focused cylindrically polarized light beams can create electron lenses with negative spherical aberration, offering new possibilities for electron-optical imaging and matter-wave optics.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method to generate electron lenses with negative spherical aberration using cylindrically polarized light beams, expanding the design space for electron-optical systems.

Findings

Radially and azimuthally polarized beams create concave and convex electron lenses.

Azimuthally polarized beam produces a lens with negative spherical aberration.

Potential for innovative electron-optical imaging system designs.

Abstract

Free electrons moving in an optical standing wave field feel the ponderomotive potential, acting as a refractive-index medium in electron optics. Emerging technologies involving this potential have been proposed and realized in electron microscopy, such as electron phase-contrast imaging using a laser standing wave in an optical enhancement cavity. However, the interaction between electrons with a cylindrically distributed optical field has not been investigated although its suitability for electron-optical imaging systems. In this study, we theoretically show that the divergence and convergence forces are provided by tightly focused cylindrically polarized light beams. The radially and azimuthally polarized beams with an annular profile are focused using a high numerical aperture optical lens. The intensity distributions at the focus function are concave and convex electron round lenses, respectively. The convex lens formed by the azimuthally polarized beam possesses negative (opposite sign) spherical aberration compared with conventional electron round lenses created by electrodes and magnetic coils. This remarkable result will contribute to the innovative design of electron-optical imaging systems and bring new capabilities into matter-wave optics.