Electron beams in scanning transmission electron microscopes (STEMs) can be used as a tool to induce movement on nanoparticles. Employing a classical-electrodynamics approach, it has been reported that the linear momentum transfer from a STEM-beam electron to a metallic spherical nanoparticle can be either repulsive or attractive towards the swift electron trajectory. This is in qualitative agreement with experimental observations. The interaction time between a swift electron and a nanoparticle is typically on the order of attoseconds. Hence, the electromagnetic response of the nanoparticle at short times is of utmost importance. However, it has been reported that the dielectric function employed in previous studies presented a noncausal pre-echo at the attosecond timescale, which might have led to incorrect unphysical results. Therefore, the validity of these linear momentum transfer results should be revisited. In this theoretical work, we study the noncausality effects on the linear momentum transferred from a swift electron to a metallic nanoparticle, made of either aluminum or gold. Using an efficient numerical methodology, we found that noncausality, as well as deficient numerical convergence, may lead to incorrect repulsive linear momentum transfer results. Contrary to what previous theoretical studies have reported, our results show that the linear momentum transfer from a swift electron to spherical aluminum and gold nanoparticles, with radius 1 nm, is always attractive. Hence a theoretical description of the experimentally observed repulsive interaction is pending.

• Received 7 June 2021
• Revised 12 October 2021
• Accepted 30 November 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.104.235416