Bragg Diffraction of Large Organic Molecules

Author(s)
Christian Brand, Filip Kialka, Stephan Troyer, Christian Knobloch, Ksenija Simonovic, Benjamin A. Stickler, Klaus Hornberger, Markus Arndt
Abstract

We demonstrate Bragg diffraction of the antibiotic ciprofloxacin and the dye molecule phthalocyanine at a thick optical grating. The observed patterns show a single dominant diffraction order with the expected dependence on the incidence angle as well as oscillating population transfer between the undiffracted and diffracted beams. We achieve an equal-amplitude splitting of 14hk (photon momenta) and maximum momentum transfer of 18hk. This paves the way for efficient, large-momentum beam splitters and mirrors for hot and complex molecules.

Organisation(s)
Quantum Optics, Quantum Nanophysics and Quantum Information
External organisation(s)
Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (DLR), Universität Duisburg-Essen, Imperial College London
Journal
Physical Review Letters
Volume
125
No. of pages
6
ISSN
0031-9007
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.033604
Publication date
07-2020
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
103021 Optics
Keywords
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/9403ffc5-2202-46c7-9ed5-1f00388d6710