2018/05/30 by Wei Cai, Ori Reinhardt, Ido Kaminer +2
Engineering · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Angular momentum #Atomic physics #Electron #Excited state #Free electron model #Helicity #Kinetic energy #Metamaterials and Metasurfaces Applications #Optics #Orbital Angular Momentum in Optics #Orbital angular momentum of light #Physics #Plasmon #Plasmonic and Surface Plasmon Research #Quantum mechanics #Surface plasmon #Total angular momentum quantum number #cond-mat.mes-hall
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.98.045424
published as Phys. Rev. B 98, 045424 (2018) · 8 pages, 5 figures
arxiv created 2018/05/30 · openalex publication_date 2018/07/24 · arxiv updated 2018/08/21 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Free electrons can efficiently absorb or emit plasmons excited in a thin conductor, giving rise to multiple energy peaks in the transmitted electron spectra separated by multiples of the plasmon energy. When the plasmons are chiral, this can also give rise to transfer of orbital angular momentum (OAM). Here, we show that large amounts of OAM can be efficiently transferred between chiral plasmons supported by a thin film and free electrons traversing it. Under realistic conditions, our predictive simulations reveal efficient absorption of a number \ensuremathℓ\ensuremath≫1 of chiral plasmons of vorticity m\ensuremath≫1, resulting in an OAM transfer \ensuremathℓm\ensuremathℏ\ensuremath≫\ensuremathℏ. Our work supports the use of chiral plasmons sustained by externally illuminated thin films as a way of generating high-vorticity electrons, resulting in a remarkably large fraction of kinetic energy associated with motion along the azimuthal direction, perpendicular to the incident beam.