European Research Team Develops New Method to Rotate Electron Beams

Sep 17, 2010

Technique has potential to study magnetic properties of materials and ability to manipulate nanoparticles into motion

Scientists from the University of Antwerp in Belgium and the Technical University of Vienna in Austria came together to find a way to generate a vortex beam of electrons. The team has created a grid-like 'mask,’ formed into a sheet of platinum foil 100 nm wide. The mask has transparent and opaque cavities that allow electrons to go through or be blocked. When an electron beam is directed at the mask, it is diffracted, and the mask can turn ordinary electron beams into vortex beams. With the grid's dimensions measured in micrometres, the scientists believe mask replication will be easy to reproduce.

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