Concept of an ionizing time-domain matter-wave interferometer
- Author(s)
- Stefan Nimmrichter, Philipp Haslinger, Klaus Hornberger, Markus Arndt
- Abstract
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(s)
- Quantum Optics, Quantum Nanophysics and Quantum Information
- External organisation(s)
- Max-Planck-Institut für Physik komplexer Systeme
- Journal
- New Journal of Physics
- Volume
- 13
- No. of pages
- 23
- ISSN
- 1367-2630
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/13/7/075002
- Publication date
- 2011
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 1030 Physics, Astronomy, 103026 Quantum optics, 103008 Experimental physics
- Portal url
- https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/concept-of-an-ionizing-timedomain-matterwave-interferometer(89fe6024-8989-4da0-9a4e-202c2796537f).html