Classical and Quantum-Mechanical Description of Dynamics of Twisted Electrons in Electromagnetic Fields

Abstract

The construction of relativistic classical and quantum dynamics of twisted (vortex) Dirac particles in arbitrary electric and magnetic fields changes the present situation when the nonrelativistic approximation is applied for relativistic twisted electrons. The Foldy– Wouthuysen representation is used and the relativistic Hamiltonian and equations of motion in this representation are derived. Methods for the extraction of an electron vortex beam with a given orbital polarization and for the manipulation of such a beam are proposed. A twisted electron beam in a magnetic field acquires a radiative orbital polarization resulting in a nonzero average projection of the intrinsic orbital angular momentum on the field direction.