Hannover 2020 – scientific programme
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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik
Q 55: Matter Wave Optics
Q 55.5: Talk
Friday, March 13, 2020, 12:00–12:15, a310
Bragg diffraction of polyatomic molecules — Christian Brand1, Filip Kiałka1, Stephan Troyer1, Christian Knobloch1, •Ksenija Simonović1, Benjamin A. Stickler2,3, Klaus Hornberger2, and Markus Arndt1 — 1Universität Wien, Fakultät für Physik, Austria — 2Faculty of Physics, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany — 3QOLS, Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College London, United Kingdom
Bragg diffraction is a widely used technique to manipulate atomic matter-waves in state-of-the art interferometers [1,2]. Here we present the first experimental realization of Bragg diffraction for complex molecules [3]. Using a thick laser grating at 532 nm, we diffract a well-collimated molecular beam and observe Bragg diffraction 0.7 m further downstream. We study this effect for the dye molecule phthalocyanine as well as for the antibiotic ciprofloxacin. The molecules are hot and may additionally absorb several photons during their passage through the laser grating. Nevertheless, we observe a pronounced angle-dependence and asymmetry in the pattern, characteristic for Bragg diffraction, illustrating the universality and robustness of the process. We can thus realize an effective mirror and large-momentum beam splitter for molecules with a momentum transfer of up to 14 ℏ kL. This is an important step towards gaining control over the manipulation of functional, complex molecules.
[1] P. J. Martin et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 60 515 (1988) [2] G. M. Tino and M. A. Kasevich, ed. Atom Interferometry (2014) [3] C. Brand et al., submitted for publication