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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 4, 2026

Preparation and Reactivity of Gasless Nanostructured Energetic Materials

Preparation and Reactivity of Gasless Nanostructured Energetic Materials

Published on: April 2, 2015

Generation of electron Airy beams.

Noa Voloch-Bloch¹, Yossi Lereah, Yigal Lilach

¹Department of Physical Electronics, School of Electrical Engineering, Fleischman Faculty of Engineering, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel.

|February 22, 2013

Summary

Researchers created accelerating Airy beams using free electrons. These electron Airy beams exhibit non-spreading and self-healing wavefunctions, opening new possibilities for controlling electron wave packets.

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Area of Science:

Quantum mechanics
Electron optics
Wave phenomena

Background:

Airy functions describe unique quantum wave packets that maintain shape and follow parabolic paths.
Accelerating Airy beams were previously realized in optics, generalizing to various trajectories.

Purpose of the Study:

To experimentally generate and observe Airy beams of free electrons.
To explore the self-healing and non-spreading properties of electron Airy beams.

Main Methods:

Holographic generation of electron Airy beams via diffraction through a nanoscale hologram.
Imprinting a cubic phase modulation onto the electron's wavefunction in the transverse plane.

Main Results:

Successful generation and observation of electron Airy beams.
Demonstrated parabolic trajectories of the highest-intensity lobes.
Observed non-spreading and self-healing electron wavefunctions.

Conclusions:

Holographic generation enables control over electron Airy beams, similar to photonic counterparts.
This technique allows for imprinting arbitrary shapes and trajectories onto electronic wave packets.
Opens new avenues for steering and manipulating electronic wave packets.