Stuttgart 2012 – scientific programme
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MO: Fachverband Molekülphysik
MO 4: Cold Molecules I
MO 4.8: Talk
Monday, March 12, 2012, 15:45–16:00, V38.03
The effect of orientation in molecular double-slit experiments — •Gregor Hartmann1, Markus Braune2, Andre Meissner1, Toralf Lischke1, and Uwe Becker1 — 1Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck Gesellschaft, Faradayweg 4-6, 14195, Germany — 2DESY, Notkestr. 85, 22067 Hamburg, Germany
Molecular double-slit experiments are a subject of high actual interest for the study of entanglement in ordinary space. The interference pattern observed on a screen in regular macroscopic double-slit experiments are exhibited as oscillations of the partial photoionization cross section of homonuclear diatomic molecules, the prototype of a molecular double-slit experiment. These oscillations were predicted already more than 40 years ago by Cohen and Fano and were experimentally verified by many groups since than. However, Cohen and Fano prediction was for randomly oriented molecules integrating over all possible directions of the molecular axis. Nowadays it is also possible to measure the photoionization properties of oriented molecules. The most fundamental system for such studies is molecular hydrogen. Here we present measurements of the same interference properties but performed on an oriented sample of H2 molecules. The experimental data cover an energy range from 20 to 500 eV electron kinetic energy. The results show a clear phase shift of π/2 with respect to the random sample due to the differentiation of the integral axis orientation sample transformimg a sin curve into a cos curve. This differentiation effect could be unambigously proved for the first time.