TY  - JOUR
AU  - Remez, Roei
AU  - Tsur, Yuval
AU  - Lu, Peng-Han
AU  - Tavabi, Amir H.
AU  - Dunin-Borkowski, Rafal
AU  - Arie, Ady
TI  - Superoscillating electron wave functions with subdiffraction spots
JO  - Physical review / A
VL  - 95
IS  - 3
SN  - 2469-9926
CY  - Woodbury, NY
PB  - Inst.
M1  - FZJ-2017-06630
SP  - 031802
PY  - 2017
AB  - Almost one and a half centuries ago, Abbe [Arch. Mikrosk. Anat. 9, 413 (1873)] and shortly after Lord Rayleigh [Philos. Mag. Ser. 5 8, 261 (1879)] showed that, when an optical lens is illuminated by a plane wave, a diffraction-limited spot with radius 0.61λ/sinα is obtained, where λ is the wavelength and α is the semiangle of the beam's convergence cone. However, spots with much smaller features can be obtained at the focal plane when the lens is illuminated by an appropriately structured beam. Whereas this concept is known for light beams, here, we show how to realize it for a massive-particle wave function, namely, a free electron. We experimentally demonstrate an electron central spot of radius 106 pm, which is more than two times smaller than the diffraction limit of the experimental setup used. In addition, we demonstrate that this central spot can be structured by adding orbital angular momentum to it. The resulting superoscillating vortex beam has a smaller dark core with respect to a regular vortex beam. This family of electron beams having hot spots with arbitrarily small features and tailored structures could be useful for studying electron-matter interactions with subatomic resolution.
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
UR  - <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000399199000001
DO  - DOI:10.1103/PhysRevA.95.031802
UR  - https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/837853
ER  -