On the role of the electric dipole moment in the diffraction of biomolecules at nanomechanical gratings

Author(s)
Christian Knobloch, Benjamin Stickler, Christian Brand, Michele Sclafani, Yigal Lilach, Thomas Juffmann, Ori Cheshnovsky, K. Hornberger, Markus Arndt
Abstract

We investigate effects of a permanent electric dipole moment on matter-wave diffraction at nanomechanical gratings. Specifically, the diffraction patterns of hypericin at ultra-thin carbonaceous diffraction masks are compared with those of a polar and a non-polar porphyrin derivative of similar mass and de Broglie wavelength. We present a theoretical analysis of the diffraction of a rotating dipole highlighting that small local electric charges in the material mask can strongly reduce the interference visibility. We discuss the relevance of this finding for single grating diffraction and multi-grating interferometry with biomolecules.

Organisation(s)
Quantum Optics, Quantum Nanophysics and Quantum Information
External organisation(s)
Universität Duisburg-Essen, Tel Aviv University
Journal
Fortschritte der Physik
Volume
65
No. of pages
8
ISSN
0015-8208
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/prop.201600025
Publication date
09-2016
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
103026 Quantum optics
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas
General, Physics and Astronomy(all)
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/on-the-role-of-the-electric-dipole-moment-in-the-diffraction-of-biomolecules-at-nanomechanical-gratings(9878f4e8-5683-453b-bee4-0e53e9d89f1f).html