Transition radiation from electrons with orbital angular momentum

Abstract

Several experimental groups have recently obtained the so called vortex electrons (electrons with orbital angular momentum (OAM) of l = 100h) with energies of 300 keV. The gyromagnetic ratio of such electrons becomes proportional to the OAM value, which leads to the corresponding increase of the electron magnetic moment. In this paper we investigate the transition radiation from the "charge + magnetic moment" system using the theory of classical electrodynamics. The circular polarization of optical transition radiation amounts up to 70%, which allows to use this effect for the independent measurement of the electron orbital momentum value.