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  • Open Access

Entanglement in elastic electron scattering: Perturbation theory misses fundamental aspects of Bragg scattering

Stefan Löffler1,* and Peter Schattschneider2

  • 1University Service Centre for Transmission Electron Microscopy, TU Wien, Stadionallee 2, 1020 Wien, Austria
  • 2Institute of Solid State Physics, TU Wien, Wiedner Hauptstraße 8–10, 1040 Wien, Austria

  • *Contact author: stefan.loeffler@tuwien.ac.at
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Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033217 – Published 21 August, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/vvb9-rf35

Abstract

Elastic electron scattering is one of the primary means of investigating materials on the atomic scale. It is usually described in a one-particle approach (the probe electron's evolution in a perturbative static potential), whereas we are dealing here with a two-body interaction between the probe and the sample, both described by separate quantum states, inducing entanglement. In this work, we present a quantum treatment of elastic electron scattering. We find that the entanglement between probe and scatterer can have far-reaching consequences, particularly on coherence and image contrast. As a timely example, we discuss decoherence in Bragg scattering on nanoparticles. We find that conventional scattering theory is recovered in most cases. The situation changes dramatically for freely evolving nanoparticles as, e.g., levitated motional ground states, an active field of research.

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Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033217– Published 21 August, 2026
  • Received 5 November 2025
  • Accepted 3 August 2026
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