Quantum wavefront shaping with a 48-element programmable phase plate for electrons

We present a 48-element programmable phase plate for coherent electron waves produced by a combination of photolithography and focused ion beam. This brings the highly successful concept of wavefront shaping from light optics into the realm of electron optics and provides an important new degree of freedom to prepare electron quantum states. The phase plate chip is mounted on an aperture rod placed in the C2 plane of a transmission electron microscope operating in the 100-300 kV range. The phase plate's behavior is characterized by a Gerchberg-Saxton algorithm, showing a phase sensitivity of 0.075 rad/mV at 300 kV, with a phase resolution of approximately 3 center dot 10-3 pi. In addition, we provide a brief overview of possible use cases and support it with both simulated and experimental results.

Automated summary

This study presents a programmable phase plate for coherent electron waves, introducing the concept of wavefront shaping from light optics to electron optics. The phase plate demonstrates high phase sensitivity and resolution in a transmission electron microscope.