Experimental challenges for high-mass matter-wave interference with nanoparticles
- Author(s)
- Sebastian Pedalino, Bruno Ramírez Galindo, Tomas de Sousa, Yaakov Y. Fein, Philipp Geyer, Stefan Gerlich, Markus Arndt
- Abstract
e discuss recent advances towards matter-wave interference experiments with free beams of metallic and dielectric nanoparticles. They require a brilliant source, an efficient detection scheme and a coherent method to divide the de Broglie waves associated with these clusters: We describe an approach based on a magnetron sputtering source which ejects an intense cluster beam with a wide mass dispersion but a small velocity spread of Δv/v < 10%. The source is universal as it can be used with all conducting and many semiconducting or even insulating materials. Here we focus on metals and dielectrics with a low work function of the bulk and thus a low cluster ionization energy. This allows us to realize photoionization gratings as coherent matter-wave beam splitters and also to realize an efficient ionization detection scheme. These new methods are now combined in an upgraded Talbot-Lau interferometer with three 266 nm depletion gratings. We here describe the experimental boundary conditions and how to realize them in the lab. This next generation of near-field interferometers shall allow us to soon push the limits of matter-wave interference to masses up to 106 amu.
- Organisation(s)
- Quantum Optics, Quantum Nanophysics and Quantum Information
- Journal
- Proceedings of SPIE
- Volume
- 12447
- ISSN
- 0277-786X
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2301.11095
- Publication date
- 03-2023
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 103026 Quantum optics
- Keywords
- Portal url
- https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/experimental-challenges-for-highmass-matterwave-interference-with-nanoparticles(1e4b1bbb-26f0-40cb-a18d-6c98242f405d).html