The Stern-Gerlach(SG)experiment is a fundamental experiment for revealing the existence of“spin”.In this experiment,beams of silver atoms are sent through inhomogeneous magnetic fields to observe their deflection.Th...The Stern-Gerlach(SG)experiment is a fundamental experiment for revealing the existence of“spin”.In this experiment,beams of silver atoms are sent through inhomogeneous magnetic fields to observe their deflection.Thus,the conventional SG experiment can be viewed as a magnetic-type spin effect.In this work,we successfully generalize the SG effect from magnetic-type to electric-type by solving Dirac's equation with a potential barrier,revealing an extraordinary spin effect.Beams of Dirac particles can be regarded as matter waves.Based on Dirac's equation,we obtain the explicit forms of the incident,reflected,and transmitted waves.The electric-type SG effect shows that the reflected and transmitted waves can exhibit notable spatial shifts,which depend on the spin direction and the incident angle of the wave.The electrictype SG effect has potential applications for separating Dirac particles with different spin directions and for estimating the spin direction of Dirac particles.Some discussions related to the interaction between spin and the electric field are also presented.展开更多
基金supported by the Quantum Science and Technology-National Science and Technology Major Project of China(Grant No.2024ZD0301000)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.12275136)。
文摘The Stern-Gerlach(SG)experiment is a fundamental experiment for revealing the existence of“spin”.In this experiment,beams of silver atoms are sent through inhomogeneous magnetic fields to observe their deflection.Thus,the conventional SG experiment can be viewed as a magnetic-type spin effect.In this work,we successfully generalize the SG effect from magnetic-type to electric-type by solving Dirac's equation with a potential barrier,revealing an extraordinary spin effect.Beams of Dirac particles can be regarded as matter waves.Based on Dirac's equation,we obtain the explicit forms of the incident,reflected,and transmitted waves.The electric-type SG effect shows that the reflected and transmitted waves can exhibit notable spatial shifts,which depend on the spin direction and the incident angle of the wave.The electrictype SG effect has potential applications for separating Dirac particles with different spin directions and for estimating the spin direction of Dirac particles.Some discussions related to the interaction between spin and the electric field are also presented.
