The Stern–Gerlach experiment has been carried out for silver and hydrogen atoms, with the result that the beams are deflected discretely rather than continuously by an inhomogenous magnetic field. What is theoretically predicted to happen for electron beams?
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The splitting of the beam by the Stern Gerlach apparatus is one of the great myths of modern physics. The orignial experiment wasn't done with a pencil-shaped beam but with a fan-shaped beam. While it is true that the fan-shaped beam is split in two, the case of the pencil-shaped beam is quite different. I analyze it in this blog posting. The actual result for the pencil beam is a donut shape. I don't believe there is any way to get just two dots on the collection screen the way people always describe it. |
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Electron beams cannot be split by a stern Gerlach apparatus, because the spin splitting and the orbital splitting cannot be practically separated. The orbital splitting in a constant magnetic field is exactly of the same magnitude as the spin splitting, meaning that the spin anti-aligned electron in a given Landau level is more or less precisely degenerate with the spin aligned electron in the previous Landau level. This means that you can't separate the velocity deflection of the electron from the spin deflection. This is why Stern Gerlach experiments are only done on atomic beams. There is no simple practical known way to correct for this. |
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There is a bit of trouble with using electrons since the magnetic field of the apparatus will cause them to turn thanks to the Lorentz force. You could, of course, build a device to account for the turning, and still split the electrons by spin at the end. |
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