Researchers discover a way to generate an electron Airy beam

A team of physicists in Israel has succeeded in generating an electron Airy beam for the first time. As they describe in their paper published in the journal Nature, the researchers used a technique similar to that used by previous researchers to create Airy beams based on light.

As most people are aware, light tends to travel in a straight line, though when it's sent through an aperture, such as is done with a common flashlight, diffraction occurs, causing the beam to widen and lose its intensity. In certain instances, however, light can be made to traverse an arced path instead of a straight line if its waveform is shaped in a certain way. Such beams are known as Airy beams, after Sir George Biddell Airy who developed a function that describes such arcs while studying the light properties of rainbows—researchers in 2007 discovered a way to actually create Airy beams based on light. Now, a research team from Israel has found a way to create the same types of beams using electrons instead of light.