Fringe-field-induced spin-orbit angular momentum mixing of twisted electrons
Phys. Rev. A 114, 022828 – Published 28 August, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/97y1-jx9b
Abstract
We develop a paraxial theory of spin dynamics for twisted electrons traversing the entrance or exit fringe of an axially symmetric magnetic coil. Starting from the Foldy-Wouthuysen reduction, we identify a transverse Pauli coupling proportional to the fringe-field gradient. The scalar orbital dynamics is treated exactly through the Ermakov mapping, while the transverse spin coupling is included perturbatively, yielding explicit first-order transition amplitudes for general solenoidal profiles. Axial symmetry requires each spin flip to be accompanied by a compensating change of orbital angular momentum, while the coordinate-linear perturbation restricts each incoming oscillator mode to at most two neighboring radial sidebands. For 100-keV electrons in a 1-T field, the low-order examples considered give integrated spin-flip probabilities of order per edge. The framework therefore quantifies mixing between spin and orbital angular momentum (OAM) in realistic magnetic lenses and provides a basis for controlling spin-OAM conversion using engineered sequences of magnetic-field edges.