Colloquium: Quantum interference of clusters and molecules

Autor(en)

Klaus Hornberger, Stefan Gerlich, Philipp Haslinger, Stefan Nimmrichter, Markus Arndt

Abstrakt

Recent progress and future prospects of matter-wave interferometry with complex organic molecules and inorganic clusters are reviewed. Three variants of a near-field interference effect, based on diffraction by material nanostructures, at optical phase gratings, and at ionizing laser fields are considered. The theoretical concepts underlying these experiments and the experimental challenges are discussed. This includes optimizing interferometer designs as well as understanding the role of decoherence. The high sensitivity of matter-wave interference experiments to external perturbations is demonstrated to be useful for accurately measuring internal properties of delocalized nanoparticles. The prospects for probing the quantum superposition principle are investigated in the limit of high particle mass and complexity.

Organisation(en)

Quantenoptik, Quantennanophysik und Quanteninformation

Externe Organisation(en)

Universität Duisburg-Essen

Journal

Reviews of Modern Physics

Band

84

Seiten

157-173

Anzahl der Seiten

17

ISSN

0034-6861

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1103/RevModPhys.84.157

Publikationsdatum

2012

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

104017 Physikalische Chemie, 103026 Quantenoptik, 210006 Nanotechnologie, 103025 Quantenmechanik

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/0bb9af05-17e4-4a7e-bbfb-eaed307c63a2