Extending the range of quantum interferometry to a wider class of composite nanoparticles requires new tools to diffract matter waves. Recently, pulsed photoionization light gratings have demonstrated their suitability for high mass matter-wave physics. Here we extend quantum interference experiments to a new class of particles by introducing photofragmentation beam splitters into time-domain matter-wave interferometry. Photofragmentation gratings can act on objects as different as van der Waals clusters and biomolecules which are thermally unstable and often resilient to single-photon ionization. We present data that demonstrate this coherent beam splitting mechanism with clusters of hexafluorobenzene and we show single-photon depletion gratings based both on fragmentation and ionization for clusters of vanillin.
@article{arxiv.1407.0919,
title = {Photofragmentation beam splitters for matter-wave interferometry},
author = {Nadine Dörre and Jonas Rodewald and Philipp Geyer and Bernd von Issendorff and Philipp Haslinger and Markus Arndt},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1407.0919},
year = {2014}
}