Converter of orbital momentum into spin momentum for the polarization of particle beams

A method for spin polarizing a particle beam, comprising the following steps:

• providing an input particle beam;
• imparting an orbital angular momentum to said input particle beam;
• in a space region extending along a segment of a z axis of the input particle beam, subjecting said input particle beam to a transverse magnetic field being homogeneous along a direction of the z axis and space-variant in radial and/or azimuthal direction, in such a way to change spin of the particles and attach to the particles a plurality of different values of orbital angular momentum in dependence on input spin values;
• and
• spatially separating the particles in dependence on orbital angular momentum values, to obtain an at least partially spin polarized output particle beam.

A method for spin polarizing a particle beam, comprising the following steps:

• providing an input particle beam;
• in a space region extending along a segment of a z axis of the input particle beam, subjecting said input particle beam to a transverse magnetic field being homogeneous along a direction of the z axis and space-variant in radial and/or azimuthal direction, to change a spin of the particles and attach to the particles a plurality of different values of orbital angular momentum in dependence on input spin values;
• diffractively separating the particle beam into a central beam and a pair of satellite beams, and
• collecting at least one of the satellite beams and removing a peripheral portion therefrom, to obtain the at least partially spin polarized output particle beam.