Stuttgart 2012 – scientific programme

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 17: Kalte Atome: Fallen und Kühlung

Q 17.2: Talk

Monday, March 12, 2012, 16:45–17:00, V7.02

Microwave guiding of electrons in planar quadrupole guides — •Johannes Hoffrogge, Jakob Hammer, and Peter Hommelhoff — Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Hans-Kopfermann-Straße 1, 85748 Garching bei München

We study the guiding of free space electrons in an AC quadrupole guide [1]. Combining the electrode pattern of a surface electrode Paul trap with microwave transmission line structures on a planar substrate leads to exceptionally tight transverse confinement. With microwave driving frequencies, radial trap frequencies in the gigahertz range can be realized. This allows for the precise control of the trajectories of slow electrons with kinetic energies of a few electron volts by means of purely electric fields. We provide a detailed study, both experimentally and numerically, of the kinematics of the electrons and its dependence on the driving parameters of the guide. We also discuss more complex electrode structures like beam splitting elements for guided electrons as well as elements with longitudinal extensions larger than the driving wavelength. These require to consider traveling wave effects in the electrode layout [2]. The combination of a quadrupole electron guide with a single atom tip field emitter as an electron source should allow for the direct preparation of electrons in low lying quantum states of the transverse harmonic oscillator potential. This would enable new guided matter-wave experiments with electrons.

[1] J. Hoffrogge, R. Fröhlich, M. A. Kasevich and P. Hommelhoff, Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 193001 (2011)

[2] J. Hoffrogge and P. Hommelhoff, New J. Phys. 13, 095012 (2011)