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A: Fachverband Atomphysik
A 24: Photoionization
A 24.3: Talk
Thursday, March 13, 2008, 14:30–14:45, 3D
Tunnelling-induced Entanglement of Electrons in Molecular Double-Slit Experiments — •A. Reinköster1, M. Braune1, S. Korica1, R. Hentges1, B. Langer2, R. Dörner3, and U. Becker1 — 1Fritz-Haber-Institut der MPG, Berlin — 2Freie Universität Berlin — 3Institut für Kernphysik, Universität Frankfurt
A system of inversion-symmetric emitters, such as a homonuclear diatomic molecule, is a source of spatial quantum coherence. This coherence is the result of electron tunnelling, where the symmetry-induced energy splitting and corresponding tunnelling time are related by the generalized uncertainty principle between time and energy. Emission of the photoelectron is instantaneous, compared to the tunnelling time, and hence randomly local. It gains its non-locality from the tunnelling process only.
One type of experiments studies the typical electron intensity oscillations in a molecular double-slit experiment. They are caused by the interference between core electrons emitted from CO and N2 after soft X-ray ionization. The single-particle entanglement generates randomization of the probability that the electron is emitted either from the left or the right site. This gives rise to a coherent, non-localized state. Intramolecular scattering reduces this state into a non-coherent and non-localized state, which appears as an EXAFS-like beating on the oscillation. The complementary entangled state is the coherent localized state, which describes two anti-symmetrically oscillating electron emission patterns. This entangled state may be explored by electron-electron coincidence experiments in the molecule frame.