Intensity Interference in a Coherent Spin-Polarized Electron Beam

• Published in: Physical review letters Vol. 126; no. 12; p. 125501
• Main Authors: Kuwahara, Makoto, Yoshida, Yuya, Nagata, Wataru, Nakakura, Kojiro, Furui, Masato, Ishida, Takafumi, Saitoh, Koh, Ujihara, Toru, Tanaka, Nobuo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Physical Society 26-03-2021
• Subjects: Electron beams; Electron optics; Electron spin; Electrons; Interference; Polarization (spin alignment)
• ISSN: 0031-9007; 1079-7114
• DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.126.125501

We investigate the intensity interference between pairs of electrons using a spin-polarized electron beam having a high polarization and a narrow energy width. We observe spin-dependent antibunching on the basis of coincident counts of electron pairs performed with a spin-polarized transmission electron microscope, which could control the spin-polarization without any changes in the electron optics. The experimental results show that the time correlation was only affected by the spin polarization, demonstrating that the antibunching is associated with fermionic statistics. The coherent spin-polarized electron beam facilitates the extraction of intrinsic quantum interference.