Spin flips of electron beams in optical near fields

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a novel method to efficiently flip electron spins using optical near fields on nanostructures, significantly reducing laser intensity requirements compared to previous approaches.

Contribution

It introduces the use of transverse electric optical near fields on nanostructures for effective electron spin manipulation at lower laser intensities.

Findings

Achieves approximately 12% spin-flip probability with reduced laser intensity.

Demonstrates energy-based Stern-Gerlach analog for unpolarized electron beams.

Provides a new approach for optical control of free-electron spins.

Abstract

Manipulating the spin polarization of electron beams using light is highly desirable but exceedingly challenging, as the approaches proposed in previous studies using free-space light usually require enormous laser intensities. Here, we propose the use of a transverse electric optical near field, extended on nanostructures, to efficiently induce spin flips of an adjacent electron beam by exploiting the strong inelastic electron scattering in phase-matched optical near fields. Our calculations show that the use of a dramatically reduced laser intensity ($\sim 10^{12}\,$W/cm$^2$) with a short interaction length ($16\,\mu$m) achieves an electron spin-flip probability of approximately $12\%$. Intriguingly, the two spin components of an unpolarized incident electron beam -- parallel and antiparallel to the electric field -- are spin-flipped and inelastically scattered to different energy states, providing an analog of the Stern--Gerlach experiment in the energy dimension. Our findings are important for optical control of free-electron spins, preparation of spin-polarized electron beams, and applications as varied as in material science and high-energy physics.