Electrostatic beam splitter for electrons – published in Applied Physics Letters
In our most recent publication in Applied Physics Letters we demonstrate the splitting of an electron beam in the energy range from 200 to 1700eV using auto-ponderomotive electron optics (see also preceding news flash here). The ponderomotive potential is shaped in such a way that the minimum at the entrance of the structure continuously splits into two separated minima at the end of the structure. An electron beam injected into the input minimum follows the potential so that, after the structure, two separated electron beams are obtained. This type of electron beam splitter could make previously impossible quantum mechanical experiments possible in the near future – at electron energies easily attainable with an electron microscope.