Interference of atomic de Broglie waves

Jun‐ichi Fujita, Fujio Shimizu

FRANZ HASSELBACH

Henning T. Schmidt, D. Fischer, Z. Berényi +12 more

We report the direct observation of interference effects in a Young's double-slit experiment where the interfering waves are two spatially separated components of the de Broglie wave of single 1.3 MeV hydrogen atoms formed close to either target nucleus in H++H2 electron-transfer collisions. Quantum interference strongly influences the results even though the hydrogen atoms have a de Broglie wavelength, lambda_{dB}, as small as 25 fm.

S. Nowak, Christian Kurtsiefer, Tilman Pfau +1 more

We observe the interference of de Broglie waves in the diffraction near field of a microfabricated grating. The reduction of the grating period by self-imaging of second to seventh order is spatially resolved. We investigate the dependence of this effect on the de Broglie wavelength by a time-to-flight technique.

Ivan Hromada, Raisa Trubko, William F. Holmgren +2 more

To improve precision measurements made with atom interferometers, the effect of de Broglie wave-front curvature induced by a lens inside an atom interferometer is experimentally demonstrated and theoretically analyzed. Electrostatic lenses shift, magnify, and distort atom interference fringes, which modifies the phase and the contrast of the interference signals. Informed by these observations, an improved method is presented for analyzing measurements of atomic beam velocity distributions using phase choppers [W. F. Holmgren, I. Hromada, C. E. Klauss, and A. D. Cronin, New J. Phys. 13, 115007 (2011)].

Pierre Meystre