Smith–Purcell radiation of a vortex electron

Abstract

Abstract A wide variety of emission processes by electron wave packets with an orbital angular momentum ℓℏ, called the vortex electrons, can be influenced by a nonparaxial contribution due to their intrinsic electric quadrupole moment. We study Smith–Purcell radiation from a conducting grating generated by a vortex electron, described as a generalized Laguerre–Gaussian packet, which has an intrinsic magnetic dipole moment and an electric quadrupole moment. By using a multipole expansion of the electromagnetic field of such an electron, we employ a generalized surface-current method, applicable for a wide range of parameters. The radiated energy contains contributions from the charge, from the magnetic moment, and from the electric quadrupole moment, as well as from their interference. The quadrupole contribution grows as the packet spreads while propagating, and it is enhanced for large ℓ. In contrast to the linear growth of the radiation intensity from the charge with a number of strips N, the quadrupole contribution reveals an N 3 dependence, which puts a limit on the maximal grating length for which the radiation losses stay small. We study spectral-angular distributions of the Smith–Purcell radiation both analytically and numerically and demonstrate that the electron’s vorticity can give rise to detectable effects for non-relativistic and moderately relativistic electrons. On a practical side, preparing the incoming electron’s state in a form of a non-Gaussian packet with a quadrupole moment—such as the vortex electron, an Airy beam, a Schrödinger cat state, and so on—one can achieve quantum enhancement of the radiation power compared to the classical linear regime. Such an enhancement would be a hallmark of a previously unexplored quantum regime of radiation, in which non-Gaussianity of the packet influences the radiation properties much stronger than the quantum recoil.