Schmidt-Kaler F, Bode N, Seidling M, Zimmermann R, Walther J, Hommelhoff P (2026)
Publication Type: Journal article
Publication year: 2026
Book Volume: 128
Article Number: 031102
Journal Issue: 3
DOI: 10.1063/5.0279055
We demonstrate a detailed study of the 1st Mathieu stability region for an electrostatic auto-ponderomotive electron guide. Analog to a radio frequency-driven linear quadrupole mass filter, we find a roughly triangular stability region spanning the dimensionless a-q parameters in Mathieu space. In our experiments, we achieve stable guiding for a ≤ 0.16 and 0.03 ≤ q ≤ 0.77. According to simulations, the pseudopotential trap depth was 0.44 eV, sufficient to confine guided electrons inside the trap radius of (290 ± 2) μm. Additionally, we detect an instability inside the guiding regime, which is due to parametric nonlinear excitation and matches well with simulation results. Our detailed study substantially improves the understanding of auto-ponderomotive guiding for charged particles. Most importantly, it shows that these electron guides, indeed, behave very similar to radio frequency Paul-trap-like quadrupole mass filters, thus might enable electron-optical elements such as electron beam splitters and electron resonators.
APA:
Schmidt-Kaler, F., Bode, N., Seidling, M., Zimmermann, R., Walther, J., & Hommelhoff, P. (2026). Characterization of the 1st Mathieu stability regime in auto-ponderomotive Paul-trap-like electron guides. Applied Physics Letters, 128(3). https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0279055
MLA:
Schmidt-Kaler, Franz, et al. "Characterization of the 1st Mathieu stability regime in auto-ponderomotive Paul-trap-like electron guides." Applied Physics Letters 128.3 (2026).
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