Chirality in electromagnetic radiation from relativistic electrons

Masahiro Katoh; Masaki Fujimoto; Elham Salehi; Masahito Hosaka; Hideki Kawaguchi

doi:10.1002/chir.23677

Chirality in electromagnetic radiation from relativistic electrons

Chirality. 2024;36(5):e23677. doi: 10.1002/chir.23677.

Authors

Masahiro Katoh^{1

2}, Masaki Fujimoto³, Elham Salehi², Masahito Hosaka⁴, Hideki Kawaguchi⁵

Affiliations

¹ Hiroshima Synchrotron Radiation Center, Hiroshima University, Higashi-hiroshima, Japan.
² Institute for Molecular Science, National Institutes of Natural Sciences, Okazaki, Japan.
³ Synchrotron Radiation Research Center, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan.
⁴ National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China.
⁵ Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Muroran Institute of Technology, Muroran, Japan.

PMID: 38752253
DOI: 10.1002/chir.23677

Abstract

Electrons in circular motion emit electromagnetic radiation and lose their energy and angular momentum, both of which are carried away by the radiation field. Electromagnetic radiation from such electrons is not only circularly polarized but also, in general, possessing helical phase structure, the former of which corresponds to spin angular momentum and the latter orbital angular momentum. Based on the classical electrodynamics, we show that the chiral topological property related to the orbital angular momentum arises from deformation of the electromagnetic field due to the relativistic effect.

Keywords: X‐ray; electromagnetic radiation; gamma‐ray; optical vortex; relativistic electron; synchrotron light; ultraviolet; undulator.

Grants and funding

23H04597/JSPS KAKENHI