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Physics World

Biomolecule behaves like a wave

Published Oct 1, 2003• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

Wave –particle duality has been observed in a biomolecule for the first time by physicists at the University of Vienna in Austria. The team also reports wave-like behaviour in a fluorinated “buckyball”, which is the largest ever molecule to exhibit quantum wave-like behaviour (L Hackermüller et al. 2003 Phys. Rev. Lett. 91 090408).

DOI
10.1088/2058-7058/16/10/2

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Wave –particle duality has been observed in a biomolecule for the first time by physicists at the University of Vienna in Austria. The team also reports wave-like behaviour in a fluorinated “buckyball”, which is the largest ever molecule to exhibit quantum wave-like behaviour (L Hackermüller et al. 2003 Phys. Rev. Lett. 91 090408).
The interference pattern formed when a beam of electrons passes through a double slit is clear evidence that electrons can behave as both waves and particles. This wave-particle duality lies at the heart of quantum mechanics, but physicists remain intrigued by the boundary between the quantum and classical worlds. Neutrons, atoms and small molecules have all shown quantum-interference effects. Now Markus Arndt and co-workers at the University of Vienna have observed the wave-like behaviour of carbon-60 molecules. The "bucky-ball" molecules are at least an order of magnitude more massive than any other object where wave properties have been observed (Nature 1999 401 680).
The chapter discusses advances in matter-wave optics with complex molecules, generalizing Young’s double slit to high masses. The quantum wave-particle duality is visualized by monitoring the arrival patterns of molecules diffracted at nanomechanical masks. Each molecule displays particle behavior when it is localized on the detector; however, the overall interference pattern requires their delocalization in free flight. Internal particle properties influence the de Broglie waves in the presence of surfaces or fields—even in interaction with atomically thin gratings. To probe the quantum nature of high-mass molecules, universal beam splitters are combined in a multi-grating interferometer to observe high-contrast matter-wave fringes even for 500 K hot molecules, containing 810 atoms with a mass of 10 000 amu. The high sensitivity of the nanoscale interference fringes to deflection in external fields enables non-invasive measurements of molecular properties. The chapter concludes by discussing research on beam techniques that extend molecular quantum optics to large biomolecules.
Through the work of Max Planck, Albert Einstein, Louis de Broglie, Arthur Compton, Niels Bohr, and many others, current scientific theory holds that all particles also have a wave nature (and vice versa).[1] This phenomenon has been verified not only for elementary particles, but also for compound particles like atoms and even molecules. For macroscopic particles, because of their extremely short wavelengths, wave properties usually cannot be detected.[2] Wave–particle duality is an ongoing conundrum in modern physics. Most physicists accept wave-particle duality as the best explanation for a broad range of observed phenomena; however, it is not without controversy.
One of the cornerstones of quantum physics is the wave nature of matter. It explains experimentally observed effects like interference and diffraction, occurring when an object moves from one place to another along several indistinguishable ways simultaneously. The wave nature disappears when the individual ways are distinguishable. In this case, the particle nature of the object becomes visible. To determine the particle nature quantitatively, the way of the object has to be measured. Here, large progress has been made recently with new techniques, enabling one to investigate single moving atoms in a controlled manner. Two examples are discussed in the following two sections. The first experiment describes an atom interferometer, where the way of the atom is entangled with its internal state. This allows one to explore the origin of wave-particle duality and perform a quantitative test of this fundamental principle. The second experiment reports on the observation of an atom-photon molecule, a bound state between an atom and a single photon. A fascinating aspect of this system is that it makes possible to monitor the motion of a single neutral atom in real time.
Wave–particle duality is frequently the first topic students encounter in elementary quantum physics. Although this phenomenon has been demonstrated with photons, electrons, neutrons, and atoms, the dual quantum character of the famous double-slit experiment can be best explained with the largest and most classical objects, which are currently the fullerene molecules. The soccer-ball-shaped carbon cages C60 are large, massive, and appealing objects for which it is clear that they must behave like particles under ordinary circumstances. We present the results of a multislit diffraction experiment with such objects to demonstrate their wave nature. The experiment serves as the basis for a discussion of several quantum concepts such as coherence, randomness, complementarity, and wave–particle duality. In particular, the effect of longitudinal (spectral) coherence can be demonstrated by a direct comparison of interferograms obtained with a thermal beam and a velocity selected beam in close analogy to the usual two-slit experiments using light.