A Kapitza-Dirac-Talbot-Lau interferometer for highly polarizable molecules

Autor(en)

Stefan Gerlich, Lucia Hackermüller, Klaus Hornberger, Alexander Stibor, Hendrik Ulbricht, Michael Gring, Fabienne Goldfarb, Tim Savas, Marcel Müri, Marcel Mayor, Markus Arndt

Abstrakt

Research on matter waves is a thriving field of quantum physics and has recently stimulated many investigations with electrons(1), neutrons(2), atoms(3), Bose-condensed ensembles(4), cold clusters(5) and hot molecules(6). Coherence experiments with complex objects are of interest for exploring the transition to classical physics(7-9), for measuring molecular properties(10), and they have even been proposed for testing new models of space-time(11). For matter-wave experiments with complex molecules, the strongly dispersive effect of the interaction between the diffracted molecule and the grating wall is a major challenge because it imposes enormous constraints on the velocity selection of the molecular beam(12). Here, we describe the first experimental realization of a new set-up that solves this problem by combining the advantages of a so-called Talbot-Lau interferometer(13) with the benefits of an optical phase grating.

Organisation(en)

Quantenoptik, Quantennanophysik und Quanteninformation

Externe Organisation(en)

Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Centre National De La Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Universität Basel

Journal

Nature Physics

Band

3

Seiten

711-715

Anzahl der Seiten

5

ISSN

1745-2473

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys701

Publikationsdatum

2007

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

103026 Quantenoptik

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/214e3224-7678-4705-92f3-a40ea6c04eda