In this paper, the controlled Double-Slit Electron Diffraction is realized."The electron source’s intensity was reduced so that the electron detection rate in the pattern was about 1 Hz. At this rate and kinetic energy, the average distance between consecutive electrons was 2.3 × 10e6 m. This ensures that only one electron is present in the 1 m long system at any one time, thus eliminating electron–electron interactions." And I am curious that how does the authors achieve and check this. How much of the intensity should be reduced?
Article Controlled Double-Slit Electron Diffraction
Similar experiments with photons gave misleading results until they found that the photon separation had to be a lot further apart that they expected if there was to be only one passing through the slots at a time. (Lecture at Bristol University last year. The photons were more irregularly distributed than expected and overlapped more.) However, two thousand kilometres seems like quite a long way apart, so the electrons probably are arriving one at a time, although I have no idea how long they are - their wavelength is about 1 Angstrom. The velocity is about 1/150 that of light, so is easily achievable. The mean current at the detector can be measured, and the electron gun current turned down until the mean current collected at the detector corresponds to 1 electron a second.
- Badges
- Science topic