Wien filter: A wave-packet-shifting device for
restoring longitudinal coherence in charged-matter wave
interferometers
Author: Franz Hasselbach and Marc Nicklaus
Longitudinal coherence in two-beam interferometers means that the two
partial wave packets arrive in the plane of interference
simultaneously. In charged-particle interferometers, this
simultaneity can be lost due to a difference in the geometrical
path lengths, a difference in the optical path length, or a
difference in the group velocities for the two wave packets on parts
or all of the beam paths. Several of those influences can combine to
yield a net relative spatial delay between the wave packets in the
interference plane, thus causing a reduction of the interference fringe
contrast. A Wien filter can be used in charged-matter wave
interferometry to compensate for this relative delay and thus to
reestablish longitudinal coherence. A Wien filter consists of
an electric and a magnetic field perpendicular both to each other and
the beam path. In its matched state, i.e., when the electrostatic and
the magnetic forces on the electrons exactly cancel each other, the
Wien filter does neither deflect the beams nor does it exert any
phase shift on the wave packets. However, wave packets traveling
through the Wien filter on laterally separated paths propagate in
regions of different electric potentials and in turn with different
group velocities, which leads to a longitudinal shift of the wave
packets relative to each other. Maximum longitudinal coherence (and
thereby fringe contrast) can be restored by choosing the compensating
delay caused by the Wien filter exactly opposite to the net relative
delay caused by the influences mentioned.
It demonstrates that the quantum-mechanical coherence of the
self-interfering plane wave components of the wave packets describing
the particle ensemble is more robust than the experimental loss of
interference fringe contrast often suggests.
The availability of such a
contrast-restoring device is especially important for very low energy
(a few keV or less) electron interferometry. It is also likely to
become important for future ion beam interferometers.
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This side was made by Alexander Friesch
Apr. ┤96