New prospects for de Broglie interferometry

Author(s)
Thomas Juffmann, Stefan Nimmrichter, Markus Arndt, Herbert Gleiter, Klaus Hornberger
Abstract

We consider various effects that are encountered in matter wave interference experiments with massive nanoparticles. The text-book example of far-field interference at a grating is compared with diffraction into the dark field behind an opaque aperture, commonly designated as Poisson’s spot or the spot of Arago. Our estimates indicate that both phenomena may still be observed in a mass range exceeding present-day experiments by at least two orders of magnitude. They both require, however, the development of sufficiently cold, intense and coherent cluster beams. While the observation of Poisson’s spot offers the advantage of non-dispersiveness and a simple distinction between classical and quantum fringes in the absence of particle wall interactions, van der Waals forces may severely limit the distinguishability between genuine quantum wave diffraction and classically explicable spots already for moderately polarizable objects and diffraction elements as thin as 100 nm.

Organisation(s)
Quantum Optics, Quantum Nanophysics and Quantum Information
External organisation(s)
Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, Max-Planck-Institut für Physik komplexer Systeme
Journal
Foundations of Physics
Volume
42
Pages
98-110
No. of pages
13
ISSN
0015-9018
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10701-010-9520-5
Publication date
2012
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
103026 Quantum optics
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/59cb160d-623d-493e-ba8c-cb5cbcaa4968