The key features of quantum mechanics are vividly illustrated by the Young-Feynman two-slit thought experiment, whose second part discusses the recording of an electron distribution with one of the two slits partially or totally closed by an aperture. Here, we realize the original Feynman proposal in a modern electron microscope equipped with a high brightness gun and two biprisms, with one of the biprisms used as a mask. By exciting the microscope lenses to conjugate the biprism plane with the slit plane, observations are carried out in the Fraunhofer plane with nearly ideal control of the covering of one of the slits. A second, new experiment is also presented, in which interference phenomena due to partial overlap of the slits are observed in the image plane. This condition is obtained by inserting the second biprism between the two slits and the first biprism and by biasing it in order to overlap their images.
The Young-Feynman controlled double-slit electron interference experiment / Tavabi, Amir H; Boothroyd, Chris B; Yücelen, Emrah; Frabboni, Stefano; Gazzadi, Gian Carlo; Dunin-Borkowski, Rafal E; Pozzi, Giulio. - In: SCIENTIFIC REPORTS. - ISSN 2045-2322. - 9:1(2019), pp. 1-8. [10.1038/s41598-019-43323-2]
The Young-Feynman controlled double-slit electron interference experiment
Frabboni, Stefano;Gazzadi, Gian Carlo;
2019-01-01
Abstract
The key features of quantum mechanics are vividly illustrated by the Young-Feynman two-slit thought experiment, whose second part discusses the recording of an electron distribution with one of the two slits partially or totally closed by an aperture. Here, we realize the original Feynman proposal in a modern electron microscope equipped with a high brightness gun and two biprisms, with one of the biprisms used as a mask. By exciting the microscope lenses to conjugate the biprism plane with the slit plane, observations are carried out in the Fraunhofer plane with nearly ideal control of the covering of one of the slits. A second, new experiment is also presented, in which interference phenomena due to partial overlap of the slits are observed in the image plane. This condition is obtained by inserting the second biprism between the two slits and the first biprism and by biasing it in order to overlap their images.
| File | Dimensione | Formato | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
s41598-019-43323-2.pdf
Open access
Tipologia:
Versione pubblicata dall'editore
Dimensione
2.18 MB
Formato
Adobe PDF
|
2.18 MB | Adobe PDF | Visualizza/Apri |
Pubblicazioni consigliate
I metadati presenti in IRIS UNIMORE sono rilasciati con licenza Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal, mentre i file delle pubblicazioni sono rilasciati con licenza Attribuzione 4.0 Internazionale (CC BY 4.0), salvo diversa indicazione.
In caso di violazione di copyright, contattare Supporto Iris
