Concept of an ionizing time-domain matter-wave interferometer

Autor(en)

Stefan Nimmrichter, Philipp Haslinger, Klaus Hornberger, Markus Arndt

Abstrakt

We discuss the concept of an all-optical and ionizing matter-wave interferometer in the time domain. The proposed setup aims at testing the wave nature of highly massive clusters and molecules, and it will enable new precision experiments with a broad class of atoms, using the same laser system. The propagating particles are illuminated by three pulses of a standing ultraviolet laser beam, which detaches an electron via efficient single photon-absorption. Optical gratings may have periods as small as 80 nm, leading to wide diffraction angles for cold atoms and to compact setups even for very massive clusters. Accounting for the coherent and the incoherent parts of the particle-light interaction, we show that the combined effect of phase and amplitude modulation of the matter waves gives rise to a Talbot-Lau-like interference effect with a characteristic dependence on the pulse delay time.

Organisation(en)

Quantenoptik, Quantennanophysik und Quanteninformation

Externe Organisation(en)

Max-Planck-Institut für Physik komplexer Systeme

Journal

New Journal of Physics

Band

13

Anzahl der Seiten

23

ISSN

1367-2630

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/13/7/075002

Publikationsdatum

2011

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

1030 Physik, Astronomie, 103026 Quantenoptik, 103008 Experimentalphysik

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/89fe6024-8989-4da0-9a4e-202c2796537f