Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

Diffraction of Metastable Rare-Gas Atoms from Nanostructured Transmission Gratings

Walter, Christian

Published Jan 1, 2003• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

Rare-gas atoms are diffracted from nanostructured silicon nitride transmission gratings. From the relative intensities of the diffraction maxima the strength of the van der Waals potential between the atoms and the grating bars is inferred. The method is set out theoretically and is validated with the help of several sets of experimental data. The atom-surface potential of metastable helium and -neon is accurately measured for the first time. The atom-optical method is shown to bear a high potential for new versatile and even more accurate measurements of atom-surface potentials.

DOI
10.53846/goediss-2843

Related papers

Determination of Atom-Surface van der Waals Potentials from Transmission-Grating Diffraction Intensities

R. E. Grisenti, Wieland Schöllkopf, Jan Peter Toennies +2 more

Molecular beams of rare gas atoms and ${\mathrm{D}}_{2}$ have been diffracted from 100-nm-period ${\mathrm{SiN}}_{x}$ transmission gratings. The relative intensities of the diffraction peaks out to the eighth order depend on the diffracting particle and are interpreted in terms of effective slit widths. These differences have been analyzed by a new theory which accounts for the long-range van der Waals ${\ensuremath{-}C}_{3}/{l}^{3}$ interaction of the particles with the walls of the grating bars. The values of the ${C}_{3}$ constant for two different gratings are in good agreement and the results exhibit the expected linear dependence on the dipole polarizability.

arXiv:quant-ph/9907053•Physical Review Letters•Aug 30, 1999•190 citations

Using Atomic Diffraction of Na from Material Gratings to Measure Atom-Surface Interactions

John D. Perreault, Alex D. Cronin, Tim A. Savas

In atom optics a material structure is commonly regarded as an amplitude mask for atom waves. However, atomic diffraction patterns formed using material gratings indicate that material structures also operate as phase masks. In this study a well collimated beam of sodium atoms is used to illuminate a silicon nitride grating with a period of 100 nm. During passage through the grating slots atoms acquire a phase shift due to the van der Waals interaction with the grating walls. As a result the relative intensities of the matter-wave diffraction peaks deviate from those expected for a purely absorbing grating. Thus a complex transmission function is required to explain the observed diffraction envelopes. An optics perspective to the theory of atomic diffraction from material gratings is put forth in the hopes of providing a more intuitive picture concerning the influence of the vdW potential. The van der Waals coefficient $C_{3} = 2.7\\pm 0.8{meV nm}^{3}$ is determined by fitting a modified Fresnel optical theory to the experimental data. This value of $C_{3}$ is consistent with a van der Waals interaction between atomic sodium and a silicon nitride surface.

APS Division of Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics Meeting Abstracts•Oct 1, 2003•0 citations

Using Atomic Diffraction of Na from Material Gratings to Measure Atom-Surface Interactions

John D. Perreault, Alexander D. Cronin, Tim A. Savas

In atom optics a material structure is commonly regarded as an amplitude mask for atom waves. However, atomic diffraction patterns formed using material gratings indicate that material structures also operate as phase masks. In this study a well collimated beam of sodium atoms is used to illuminate a silicon nitride grating with a period of 100 nm. During passage through the grating slots atoms acquire a phase shift due to the van der Waals interaction with the grating walls. As a result the relative intensities of the matter-wave diffraction peaks deviate from those expected for a purely absorbing grating. Thus a complex transmission function is required to explain the observed diffraction envelopes. An optics perspective to the theory of atomic diffraction from material gratings is put forth in the hopes of providing a more intuitive picture concerning the influence of the vdW potential. The van der Waals coefficient $C_{3} = 2.7\pm 0.8{meV nm}^{3}$ is determined by fitting a modified Fresnel optical theory to the experimental data. This value of $C_{3}$ is consistent with a van der Waals interaction between atomic sodium and a silicon nitride surface.

arXiv:physics/0312123•Dec 19, 2003•0 citations

Using atomic diffraction of Na from material gratings to measure atom-surface interactions

John D. Perreault, Alexander D. Cronin, Tim A. Savas

In atom optics a material structure is commonly regarded as an amplitude mask for atom waves. However, atomic diffraction patterns formed using material gratings indicate that material structures also operate as phase masks. In this study a well collimated beam of sodium atoms is used to illuminate a silicon nitride grating with a period of 100 nm. During passage through the grating slots atoms acquire a phase shift due to the van der Waals (vdW) interaction with the grating walls. As a result the relative intensities of the matter-wave diffraction peaks deviate from those expected for a purely absorbing grating. Thus a complex transmission function is required to explain the observed diffraction envelopes. An optics perspective to the theory of atomic diffraction from material gratings is put forth in the hopes of providing a more intuitive picture concerning the influence of the vdW potential. The van der Waals coefficient ${C}_{3}=2.7\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.8\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{meV}\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{nm}}^{3}$ is determined by fitting a modified Fresnel optical theory to the experimental data. This value of ${C}_{3}$ is consistent with a van der Waals interaction between atomic sodium and a silicon nitride surface.

Physical Review A•May 20, 2005•53 citations

ATOM OPTICS, CORE ELECTRONS, AND THE VAN DER WAALS POTENTIAL

Vincent Lonij

This dissertation describes new measurements of the van der Waals (vdW) potential energy for atoms near a surface. The measurements presented here were accomplished by studying diffraction a beam of atoms transmitted through a nanograting. I will describe how we improved precision by a factor of 10 over previous diffraction measurements by studying how different types of atoms interact with the same surface. As a result of this new precision, we were able to show for the first time the contribution of atomic core electrons to the atom-surface potential, and experimentally test different atomic structure calculation methods.In addition, this dissertation will describe how changing the width of the grating bars to achieve a particular "magic" grating bar width or rotating a grating to a particular "magic" angle allows us to determine both the atom-surface potential strength and the geometry of the grating. This represents an improvement over several recent studies where uncertainties in the nanograting geometry limited precision in the measurements of the vdW potential.For a complementary measurement, also discussed in this dissertation, we collaborated with the Vigue group in Toulouse, France. In this collaboration we used an atom interferometer to measure the phase shift due to transmission through a nanograting. By combining diffraction data from Tucson with interferometry data from Toulouse we improved the precision of interferometry measurements of the atom-surface potential of a single atomic species by almost a factor of 10 over previous interferometric measurements of the vdW potential. These interferometry measurements also serve to measure the shape of the vdW potential and set a limit on non-Newtonian gravitational interactions at 1-2 nm length scales.Finally, this dissertation will discuss how nanogratings with optimized geometry can improve atom interferometers, for example, with blazed gratings. We discuss next generation atom-surface potential measurements and examine new ways of analyzing diffraction data.

•Jan 1, 2011•1 citation

Atom diffraction with a ‘natural’ metastable atom nozzle beam

J.‐C. Karam, N Wipf, Jules Grucker +7 more

The resonant metastability-exchange process is used to obtain a metastable atom beam with intrinsic properties close to those of a ground-state atom nozzle beam (small angular aperture, narrow velocity distribution). The estimated effective source diameter (15 µm) is small enough to provide at a distance of 597 mm a transverse coherence radius of about 873 nm for argon, 1236 nm for neon and 1660 nm for helium. It is demonstrated both by experiment and numerical calculations with He*, Ne* and Ar* metastable atoms, that this beam gives rise to diffraction effects on the transmitted angular pattern of a silicon-nitride nano-slit grating (period 100 nm). Observed patterns are in good agreement with previous measurements with He* and Ne* metastable atoms. For argon, a calculation taking into account the angular aperture of the beam (0.35 mrad) and the effect of the van der Waals interaction—the van der Waals constant C 3 = 1.83 +0.1 −0.15 au being derived from spectroscopic data—leads to a good agreement with experiment.

Journal of Physics B Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics•Jul 18, 2005•21 citations
Rare-gas atoms are diffracted from nanostructured silicon nitride transmission gratings. From the relative intensities of the diffraction maxima the strength of the van der Waals potential between the atoms and the grating bars is inferred. The method is set out theoretically and is validated with the help of several sets of experimental data. The atom-surface potential of metastable helium and -neon is accurately measured for the first time. The atom-optical method is shown to bear a high potential for new versatile and even more accurate measurements of atom-surface potentials.
Molecular beams of rare gas atoms and D2{\mathrm{D}}_{2}D2​ have been diffracted from 100-nm-period SiNx{\mathrm{SiN}}_{x}SiNx​ transmission gratings. The relative intensities of the diffraction peaks out to the eighth order depend on the diffracting particle and are interpreted in terms of effective slit widths. These differences have been analyzed by a new theory which accounts for the long-range van der Waals ${\ensuremath{-}C}_{3}/{l}^{3}$ interaction of the particles with the walls of the grating bars. The values of the C3{C}_{3}C3​ constant for two different gratings are in good agreement and the results exhibit the expected linear dependence on the dipole polarizability.
In atom optics a material structure is commonly regarded as an amplitude mask for atom waves. However, atomic diffraction patterns formed using material gratings indicate that material structures also operate as phase masks. In this study a well collimated beam of sodium atoms is used to illuminate a silicon nitride grating with a period of 100 nm. During passage through the grating slots atoms acquire a phase shift due to the van der Waals interaction with the grating walls. As a result the relative intensities of the matter-wave diffraction peaks deviate from those expected for a purely absorbing grating. Thus a complex transmission function is required to explain the observed diffraction envelopes. An optics perspective to the theory of atomic diffraction from material gratings is put forth in the hopes of providing a more intuitive picture concerning the influence of the vdW potential. The van der Waals coefficient C3=2.7pm0.8meVnm3C_{3} = 2.7\\pm 0.8{meV nm}^{3}C3​=2.7pm0.8meVnm3 is determined by fitting a modified Fresnel optical theory to the experimental data. This value of C3C_{3}C3​ is consistent with a van der Waals interaction between atomic sodium and a silicon nitride surface.
In atom optics a material structure is commonly regarded as an amplitude mask for atom waves. However, atomic diffraction patterns formed using material gratings indicate that material structures also operate as phase masks. In this study a well collimated beam of sodium atoms is used to illuminate a silicon nitride grating with a period of 100 nm. During passage through the grating slots atoms acquire a phase shift due to the van der Waals interaction with the grating walls. As a result the relative intensities of the matter-wave diffraction peaks deviate from those expected for a purely absorbing grating. Thus a complex transmission function is required to explain the observed diffraction envelopes. An optics perspective to the theory of atomic diffraction from material gratings is put forth in the hopes of providing a more intuitive picture concerning the influence of the vdW potential. The van der Waals coefficient C3=2.7±0.8meVnm3C_{3} = 2.7\pm 0.8{meV nm}^{3}C3​=2.7±0.8meVnm3 is determined by fitting a modified Fresnel optical theory to the experimental data. This value of C3C_{3}C3​ is consistent with a van der Waals interaction between atomic sodium and a silicon nitride surface.
In atom optics a material structure is commonly regarded as an amplitude mask for atom waves. However, atomic diffraction patterns formed using material gratings indicate that material structures also operate as phase masks. In this study a well collimated beam of sodium atoms is used to illuminate a silicon nitride grating with a period of 100 nm. During passage through the grating slots atoms acquire a phase shift due to the van der Waals (vdW) interaction with the grating walls. As a result the relative intensities of the matter-wave diffraction peaks deviate from those expected for a purely absorbing grating. Thus a complex transmission function is required to explain the observed diffraction envelopes. An optics perspective to the theory of atomic diffraction from material gratings is put forth in the hopes of providing a more intuitive picture concerning the influence of the vdW potential. The van der Waals coefficient ${C}_{3}=2.7\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.8\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{meV}\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{nm}}^{3}$ is determined by fitting a modified Fresnel optical theory to the experimental data. This value of C3{C}_{3}C3​ is consistent with a van der Waals interaction between atomic sodium and a silicon nitride surface.
This dissertation describes new measurements of the van der Waals (vdW) potential energy for atoms near a surface. The measurements presented here were accomplished by studying diffraction a beam of atoms transmitted through a nanograting. I will describe how we improved precision by a factor of 10 over previous diffraction measurements by studying how different types of atoms interact with the same surface. As a result of this new precision, we were able to show for the first time the contribution of atomic core electrons to the atom-surface potential, and experimentally test different atomic structure calculation methods.In addition, this dissertation will describe how changing the width of the grating bars to achieve a particular "magic" grating bar width or rotating a grating to a particular "magic" angle allows us to determine both the atom-surface potential strength and the geometry of the grating. This represents an improvement over several recent studies where uncertainties in the nanograting geometry limited precision in the measurements of the vdW potential.For a complementary measurement, also discussed in this dissertation, we collaborated with the Vigue group in Toulouse, France. In this collaboration we used an atom interferometer to measure the phase shift due to transmission through a nanograting. By combining diffraction data from Tucson with interferometry data from Toulouse we improved the precision of interferometry measurements of the atom-surface potential of a single atomic species by almost a factor of 10 over previous interferometric measurements of the vdW potential. These interferometry measurements also serve to measure the shape of the vdW potential and set a limit on non-Newtonian gravitational interactions at 1-2 nm length scales.Finally, this dissertation will discuss how nanogratings with optimized geometry can improve atom interferometers, for example, with blazed gratings. We discuss next generation atom-surface potential measurements and examine new ways of analyzing diffraction data.
The resonant metastability-exchange process is used to obtain a metastable atom beam with intrinsic properties close to those of a ground-state atom nozzle beam (small angular aperture, narrow velocity distribution). The estimated effective source diameter (15 µm) is small enough to provide at a distance of 597 mm a transverse coherence radius of about 873 nm for argon, 1236 nm for neon and 1660 nm for helium. It is demonstrated both by experiment and numerical calculations with He*, Ne* and Ar* metastable atoms, that this beam gives rise to diffraction effects on the transmitted angular pattern of a silicon-nitride nano-slit grating (period 100 nm). Observed patterns are in good agreement with previous measurements with He* and Ne* metastable atoms. For argon, a calculation taking into account the angular aperture of the beam (0.35 mrad) and the effect of the van der Waals interaction—the van der Waals constant C 3 = 1.83 +0.1 −0.15 au being derived from spectroscopic data—leads to a good agreement with experiment.