Diffraction of twisted particles
The authors of the paper – Maksim Maksimov (ITMO University), Nikita Borodin (DLNP JINR), Daria Kargina (ITMO University), Dmitry Naumov (DLNP JINR), and Dmitry Karlovets (ITMO University) – proposed a simple and descriptive method for detecting the orbital angular momentum of twisted electron and ion beams. The novelty of the method lies in its applicability at relativistic energies, in a range where the wave properties of particles are rarely used.
The study of twisted quantum states is a rapidly developing area of modern quantum physics, which opens up new degrees of freedom with opportunities of applications in both fundamental and applied research.
The key idea of the work is as follows: if a twisted electron is passed through a micron-sized triangular aperture, a characteristic diffraction pattern emerges in the far field. Its shape uniquely encodes the magnitude and sign of the orbital angular momentum, allowing the parameters of the twisted state to be reconstructed from a single intensity image.
It is shown that the method works for energies of 100 keV to 5 MeV, typical for photoinjectors, is feasible on existing DLNP JINR facilities, and can serve as a convenient tool for the diagnostics and control of twisted electron beams.
Physical Review A, 23 December 2025
