Fang Y, Kuttruff J, Nabben D, Baum P. Structured electrons with chiral mass and charge.
Science 2024;
385:183-187. [PMID:
38991062 DOI:
10.1126/science.adp9143]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/17/2024] [Accepted: 05/30/2024] [Indexed: 07/13/2024]
Abstract
Chirality is a phenomenon with widespread relevance in fundamental physics, material science, chemistry, optics, and spectroscopy. In this work, we show that a free electron can be converted by the field cycles of laser light into a right-handed or left-handed coil of mass and charge. In contrast to phase-vortex beams, our electrons maintained a flat de Broglie wave but obtained their chirality from the shape of their expectation value in space and time. Measurements of wave function densities by attosecond gating revealed the three-dimensional shape of coils and double coils with left-handed or right-handed pitch. Engineered elementary particles with such or related chiral geometries should be useful for applications in chiral sensing, free-electron quantum optics, particle physics or electron microscopy.
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