Hanbury Brown and Twiss interference of electrons in free space from independent needle tip sources
Anton Classen, Raul Corrêa, Florian Fleischmann, Simon Semmler, Marc-Oliver Pleinert, Peter Hommelhoff, Joachim von Zanthier
Published: 2024/1/30
Abstract
We investigate two-electron interference in free space using two laser-triggered needle tips as independent electron sources, a fermionic realisation of the landmark Hanbury Brown and Twiss interferometer. We calculate the two-electron interference pattern in a quantum path formalism taking into account the fermionic nature and the spin configuration of the electrons. We also estimate the Coulomb repulsion in the setup in a semiclassical approach. We find that antibunching resulting from Pauli's exclusion principle and repulsion stemming from the Coulomb interaction can be clearly distinguished.