Focused beam of electrons curves and doesn’t diffract

Ars Technica : In 2007, researchers manipulated the waveforms of photons in beams of light to prevent the light from diffracting as it passed through the air. Now, beams of electrons have been similarly manipulated. Noa Voloch-Bloch of Tel Aviv University in Israel and her colleagues passed the electrons through a holographic pattern created by a magnetic field. The hologram, which acted as a lens, allowed the researchers to alter the waveforms of the electrons. The careful tuning of the waveforms caused the electrons to interfere with each other in a way that forced them to follow a parabolic path instead of diffracting. That result is known as an Airy beam . One of the unique characteristics of an Airy beam is that if it encounters something that partially blocks its path, the beam will pass by the object as if the barrier was not there. The ability to focus electron beams in this way may be useful for electron microscopes and for studying the properties of electrons themselves.