Dresden 2011 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 25: Matter Wave Optics

Q 25.5: Vortrag

Mittwoch, 16. März 2011, 11:30–11:45, BAR Schön

Molecule Interferometer at Southampton — •Carola Szewc, Paul Venn, and Hendrik Ulbricht — University of Southampton, School of Physics and Astronomy, Highfield, SO17 1BJ, Southampton, United Kingdom

De Broglie interference experiments with large molecules are of interest to address fundamental physics related to limitations of quantum physics, but also for applications like molecule metrology as demonstrated by the Vienna group. We will report on our progress of setting up a vertical molecule Talbot-Lau interferometer at Southampton. This three material grating interferometer will enable interference and metrology experiments of particles of up to 10,000 amu (atomic mass units), which is an important intermediate step towards very massive particle interferences to attack the fundamental questions. Furthermore, that mass range is important for metrology experiments with organic molecules. While some analytic methods basing on molecule interference have been demonstrated - as the measurement of molecule's polarizability, dipole moments and molecular quantum interference lithography as a new bottom-up nanofabrication technique - other proposals on molecule sorting and single photon recoil spectroscopy are still waiting for experimental realization. Studies by our molecule interferometer include the mapping of the molecule distribution to extract the full information about the molecular quantum state by Wigner function tomography as well as the study of van der Waals/Casimir-Polder interactions between molecules and diffraction gratings.