Freiburg 2024 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik
Q 56: Poster VII
Q 56.2: Poster
Donnerstag, 14. März 2024, 17:00–19:00, KG I Foyer
Influence of molecular properties on matter-wave interferometry — •Lukas Martinetz1, Benjamin A. Stickler2, Ksenija Simonović3, Richard Ferstl3, Markus Arndt3, and Klaus Hornberger1 — 1University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany — 2Ulm University, Germany — 3University of Vienna, Austria
Matter-wave interferometers served to confirm the wave-particle duality with large molecules [1] and enabled to prepare highly delocalized quantum states with molecules of ever increasing mass [2]. Since the internal molecular dynamics can play a decisive role in the interaction with the diffraction grating, matter-wave interferometers hold out the prospects of being sensitive probes for molecular properties. Here, we quantify the impact of these properties by calculating the interference pattern of molecules that are diffracted at a standing laser wave. The interaction with the laser enters through the Talbot coefficients, which incorporate state-dependent polarizabilities and photon-absorption cross sections, and the depletion of the molecular beam through ionization or cleavage. Furthermore, our calculation accounts for the finite size of the particle source and collimation slits, for a distribution of initial particle velocities, as well as for gravity, the Coriolis force and an asymmetric standing laser wave due to non-ideal retroreflection at the grating mirror. We display and discuss features of the pattern for the different molecular processes and compare our model with recent experiments aiming at measuring molecular parameters.
[1] M. Arndt et al., Nature 401, 680 (1999)
[2] Y. Y. Fein et al., Nat. Phys. 15, 1242 (2019)
Keywords: matter-wave interferometry; molecules; diffraction; laser grating; photon absorption