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Microwave guiding of electrons on a chip

Electrons travelling in free space have allowed to explore fundamental physics like the wave nature of matter, the Aharonov-Bohm and the Hanbury Brown-Twiss effect. Complementarily, the precise control over the external degrees of freedom of electrons has proven pivotal for wholly new types of experiments such as high precision measurements of the electron's mass and magnetic moment in Penning traps. Interestingly, the confinement of electrons in the purely electric field of an alternating quadrupole has rarely been considered. Recent advances in the development of planar chip-based ion traps suggest that this technology can be applied to enable entirely new experiments with electron beams guided in versatile potentials. Here we demonstrate the transverse confinement of a low energy electron beam in a linear quadrupole guide based on microstructured planar electrodes and driven at microwave frequencies. A new guided matter-wave system will result, with applications ranging from electron interferometry to novel non-invasive electron microscopy.