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Updated: May 23, 2026

All-electronic Nanosecond-resolved Scanning Tunneling Microscopy: Facilitating the Investigation of Single Dopant Charge Dynamics
Published on: January 19, 2018
Sub-nanometer free electrons with topological charge
P Schattschneider1, M Stöger-Pollach, S Löffler
1Institute of Solid State Physics, Vienna University of Technology, Wiedner Hauptstrasse 8-10, A-1040 Wien, Austria. schattschneider@ifp.tuwien.ac.at
Abstract:
The holographic mask technique is used to create freely moving electrons with quantized angular momentum. With electron optical elements they can be focused to vortices with diameters below the nanometer range. The understanding of these vortex beams is important for many applications. Here, we produce electron vortex beams and compare them to a theory of electrons with topological charge. The experimental results show excellent agreement with simulations. As an immediate application, fundamental experimental parameters like spherical aberration and partial coherence are determined.
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