Electrode Structure for Guiding a Beam of Charged Particles

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This patent describes an innovative electrode structure for accurately guiding and manipulating beams of charged particles (such as electrons or ions) along a defined path using sequences of static, multipolar DC electrodes. These electrodes create carefully arranged electric fields that confine the particle beam transversally and can, for example, split the beam into two branches. Unlike conventional systems that require high-frequency AC fields for stable particle confinement, this invention uses static DC fields with periodic spatial variation, reducing complexity, energy loss, and thermal load. The invention enables precise control, splitting, and filtering of particle beams for advanced scientific and technological applications.

Use CasesContent extracted from patent full text and abstract with AI.

• Advanced electron microscopes, allowing for controlled steering and coherent beam splitting for improved imaging or quantum measurements.
• Mass spectrometry systems that require stable, selective, and energy-efficient particle transport and manipulation.
• Quantum computing setups with trapped ions or electrons, enabling complex routing and interaction of quantum bits (qubits).
• Particle beam splitters for quantum interference experiments or amplitude beam splitters in quantum optics with electrons or ions.
• Energy filtering of charged particle beams in analytical instruments.
• Miniaturized, low-loss devices for charged particle beam control in laboratory or industrial contexts.

BenefitsContent extracted from patent full text and abstract with AI.

• Significantly reduces technical challenges and power consumption by replacing high-frequency AC confinement fields with static DC fields.
• Enables stable guidance and splitting of both light (electrons) and heavy (ions) charged particles without complex RF sources or impedance matching.
• Supports precise manipulation, such as steering and coherent splitting, useful for quantum and advanced microscopy applications.
• Reduces thermal load and energy losses, making the system more compact, reliable, and suitable for integration into sensitive instruments.
• Allows filtering of particles by energy, enabling energy selection and purification of beams.
• Maintains quantum coherence during beam splitting, which is critical for quantum computing and quantum measurement setups.
• Facilitates the handling and analysis of multiple types of charged particles simultaneously.

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Patent Abstract

The invention relates to an electrode structure for guiding and, for example, splitting a charged particle beam, for example an electron beam, along a longitudinal path, having multipolar electrode assemblies which are mutually spaced along the longitudinal path and which comprise DC voltage electrodes. The electrode assemblies are designed to generate static multipolar fields which are centered about the path on transversal planes oriented perpendicularly to the longitudinal path, wherein the field strength of each of the static multipolar fields on the transversal planes has a local minimum at the location of the path, and the field strength increases as the distance to the location of the path increases. Field directions of the static multipolar fields vary periodically along the path with a period length such that the particles propagating along the path are exposed to a non-homogenous electric alternating field on the basis of the inherent movement of the particles and are subjected to a transversal restoring force in the direction of the longitudinal path, averaged over time.