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arXiv:2312.12974 · Atoms

Nanoparticle Interferometer by Throw and Catch

Jakub Wardak, Tiberius Georgescu, Giulio Gasbarri, Alessio Belenchia, Hendrik Ulbricht

Published Jan 25, 2024• 3 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Matter wave interferometry with increasingly larger masses could pave the way to understanding the nature of wavefunction collapse, the quantum to classical transition, or even how an object in a spatial superposition interacts with its gravitational field. In order to improve upon the current mass record, it is necessary to move into the nanoparticle regime. In this paper, we provide a design for a nanoparticle Talbot–Lau matter wave interferometer that circumvents the practical challenges of previously proposed designs. We present numerical estimates of the expected fringe patterns that such an interferometer would produce, considering all major sources of decoherence. We discuss the practical challenges involved in building such an experiment, as well as some preliminary experimental results to illustrate the proposed measurement scheme. We show that such a design is suitable for seeing interference fringes with 106 amu SiO2 particles and that this design can be extended to even 108 amu particles by using flight times below the typical Talbot time of the system.

DOI
10.3390/atoms12020007

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Matter wave interferometry with increasingly larger masses could pave the way to understanding the nature of wavefunction collapse, the quantum to classical transition, or even how an object in a spatial superposition interacts with its gravitational field. In order to improve upon the current mass record, it is necessary to move into the nanoparticle regime. In this paper, we provide a design for a nanoparticle Talbot–Lau matter wave interferometer that circumvents the practical challenges of previously proposed designs. We present numerical estimates of the expected fringe patterns that such an interferometer would produce, considering all major sources of decoherence. We discuss the practical challenges involved in building such an experiment, as well as some preliminary experimental results to illustrate the proposed measurement scheme. We show that such a design is suitable for seeing interference fringes with 106 amu SiO2 particles and that this design can be extended to even 108 amu particles by using flight times below the typical Talbot time of the system.
The wave-particle duality is a key concept of quantum physics and extending quantum superpositions to bodies of increasing mass and complexity has become a key goal to numerous research groups. Such experiments are motivated by the desire to probe and better understand the quantum-classical interface in advanced tests of spontaneous or gravity-induced wave function collapse and in the search for non-linear modifications of quantum theory. High mass interferometry has been proposed to serve in the search for light dark matter via weak recoil decoherence as well as in tests of the weak equivalence principle by comparing a large variety of quantum systems with very distinct internal composition, excitation, mass, shape or angular momentum. Here we discuss the experimental state of the art in high-mass matter-wave interferometry, as well as new perspectives from cluster and nanoparticle physics to push quantum superpositions by 3 to 4 orders of magnitude in mass or up to 6 orders of magnitude in 'macroscopicity'. We discuss different near-field interferometer configurations that shall become useful in near-future demonstrations of quantum phenomena with objects as diverse as proteins, metal clusters and dielectric nanoparticles.
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We discuss modern developments in quantum optics with organic molecules, clusters and nanoparticles -- in particular recent realizations of near-field matter-wave interferometry. A unified theoretical description in phase space allows us to describe quantum interferometry in position space and in the time domain on an equal footing. In order to establish matter-wave interferometers as a universal tool, which can accept and address a variety of nanoparticles, we elaborate on new quantum optical elements, such as diffraction gratings made of matter and light, as well as their absorptive and dispersive interaction with complex materials. We present Talbot-Lau interferometry (TLI), the Kapitza-Dirac-Talbot-Lau interferometer (KDTLI) and interferometry with pulsed optical gratings (OTIMA) as the most advanced devices to study the quantum wave nature of composite matter. These experiments define the current mass and complexity record in interferometric explorations of quantum macroscopicity and they open new avenues to quantum assisted metrology with applications in physical chemistry and biomolecular physics.
An apparent contradiction exists between the wave nature of quantum mechanics allowing for superposition of states, and the observations of classical mechanics. Several possible solutions for this discrepancy have been suggested including the proposal that quantum and classical dynamics are simply approximations to a universal dynamics. Collapse models modify the usual Schrödinger equation that provides this universal dynamics and can be tested experimentally. In this thesis, we conceive of a Talbot matter-wave interferometer to probe the superposition of high-mass nanoparticles. We extend existing descriptions beyond the point-like regime allowing us to test collapse models with masses up to 109u. During this development, we discover and correct an error in calculating the Talbot coefficients for a laser grating in the Mie regime. A Bayesian analysis is performed on simulated data making greater use of each recorded arrival position of the nanoparticle and provide a real-valued probability density to the parameter space as opposed to the binary exclusion plots of previous works. We find a limit to the size of spherical particles that can be used as a result of the grating transformation being averaged over the particle. As a result, during a collaboration with the Geraci group at Northwestern University, we develop a numerical method for finding where arbitrarily shaped particles scatter information about their position and use these techniques to derive the Talbot coefficients for arbitrary particle geometries.
Abstract The quantum superposition principle is a fundamental concept of physics 1 and the basis of numerous quantum technologies 2,3 . Yet, it is still often regarded counterintuitive because we do not observe its key features on the macroscopic scales of our daily lives. It is, therefore, interesting to ask how quantum properties persist or change as we increase the size and complexity of objects 4 . A model test for this question can be realized by matter-wave interferometry, in which the motion of individual massive particles becomes delocalized and needs to be described by a wave function that spans regions far larger than the particle itself 5 . Over the years, this has been explored with a series of objects of increasing mass and complexity 6–9 and a growing community aims at pushing this to ever larger limits. Here we present an experimental platform that extends matter-wave interference to large metal clusters, a qualitatively new material class for quantum experiments. We specifically demonstrate quantum interference of sodium nanoparticles, which can each contain more than 7,000 atoms at masses greater than 170,000 Da. They propagate in a Schrödinger cat state with a macroscopicity 10 of μ = 15.5, surpassing previous experiments 5,9,11 by an order of magnitude.
Interference of matter waves is at the heart of quantum physics and has been observed for a wide range of particles from electrons to complex molecules. Here, we demonstrate matter wave interference of single positrons using a period-magnifying Talbot-Lau interferometer based on material diffraction gratings. The system produced high-contrast periodic fringes, which were detected by means of nuclear emulsions capable of determining the impact point of each individual positron with submicrometric resolution. The measured energy dependence of fringe contrast in the range of 8 to 16 keV proves the quantum-mechanical origin of the periodic pattern and excludes classical projective effects, providing the first observation to date of antimatter wave interference. Future applications of this interferometric technique include the measurement of the gravitational acceleration of neutral antimatter systems exploiting the inertial sensing capabilities of Talbot-Lau interference.