Related papers: Optical polarizabilities of large molecules measur…
We apply near-field matter-wave interferometry to determine the absolute scalar polarizability of the fullerenes C$_{60}$ and C$_{70}$. A key feature of our experiment is the combination of good transmission and high spatial resolution,…
We demonstrate a near-field Talbot-Lau interferometer for C-70 fullerene molecules. Such interferometers are particularly suitable for larger masses. Using three free-standing gold gratings of one micrometer period and a transversally…
We show that matter-wave diffraction off a single standing laser wave can be used as an accurate measurement scheme for photophysical molecular parameters. These include state-dependent optical polarizabilities and photon-absorption cross…
Research on matter waves is a thriving field of quantum physics and has recently stimulated many investigations with electrons, neutrons, atoms, Bose-condensed ensembles, cold clusters and hot molecules. Coherence experiments with complex…
We demonstrate that structures made of light can be used to coherently control the motion of complex molecules. In particular, we show diffraction of the fullerenes C60 and C70 at a thin grating based on a standing light wave. We prove…
Matter-wave interferometry with molecules is intriguing both because it demonstrates a fundamental quantum phenomenon and because it opens avenues to quantum-enhanced measurements in physical chemistry. One great challenge in such…
We study the interference of C70 fullerenes in a Talbot-Lau interferometer with a large separation between the diffraction gratings. This permits the observation of recurrences of the interference contrast both as a function of the de…
We discuss the concept of an all-optical and ionizing matter-wave interferometer in the time domain. The proposed setup aims at testing the wave nature of highly massive clusters and molecules, and it will enable new precision experiments…
Imaging of surface adsorbed molecules is investigated as a novel detection method for matter wave interferometry with fluorescent particles. Mechanically magnified fluorescence imaging turns out to be an excellent tool for recording quantum…
We review recent progress and future prospects of matter wave interferometry with complex organic molecules and inorganic clusters. Three variants of a near-field interference effect, based on diffraction by material nanostructures, at…
We study C70 fullerene matter waves in a Talbot-Lau interferometer as a function of their temperature. While the ideal fringe visibility is observed at moderate molecular temperatures, we find a gradual degradation of the interference…
The degree of optical spatial coherence -a fundamental property of light that describes the mutual correlations between fluctuating electromagnetic fields- has proven challenging to control at the micrometer scale. Here we employ surface…
This chapter reviews recent experiments on matter wave interferometry with large molecules. Starting from an elementary introduction to matter wave physics we discuss far-field diffraction and near-field interferometry with thermally…
Interference with atomic and molecular matter waves is a rich branch of atomic physics and quantum optics. It started with atom diffraction from crystal surfaces and the separated oscillatory fields technique used in atomic clocks. Atom…
Features of complex vector light become important in any interference effects, including scattering, diffraction, and non-linear processes. Here we are investigating the role of polarization-structured light in atomic state interferometers.…
We show that dressing polar molecules with a far-off-resonant optical field leads to new types of intermolecular potentials, which undergo a crossover from the inverse-power to oscillating behavior depending on the intermolecular distance,…
We present results of first-principles calculations of the frequency-dependent polarizabilities of all alkali atoms for light in the wavelength range 300-1600 nm, with particular attention to wavelengths of common infrared lasers. We…
Diffraction of matter-waves is an important demonstration of the fact that objects in nature possess a mixture of particle-like and wave-like properties. Unlike in the case of light diffraction, matter-waves are subject to a vacuum-mediated…
The propensity of molecules to spatially align along the polarization vector of intense, pulsed light fields is related to readily-accessible parameters (molecular polarizabilities, moment of inertia, peak intensity of the light and its…
Matter-wave interferometry of ultra-cold atoms with attractive interactions is studied at the full many-body level. First, we study how a coherent light-pulse applied to an initially-condensed solitonic system splits it into two…