Related papers: Theory of near-field matter wave interference beyo…
Recent progress in matter-wave interferometry aims to directly probe the quantum properties of matter on ever increasing scales. However, in order to perform interferometric experiments with massive mesoscopic objects, taking into account…
We present a theoretical framework to describe the effects of decoherence on matter waves in Talbot-Lau interferometry. Using a Wigner description of the stationary beam the loss of interference contrast can be calculated in closed form.…
Light-matter interaction processes are significantly affected by surrounding electromagnetic environment. Dielectric materials are usually introduced into an interaction picture via their classical properties, e.g. permittivity, appearing…
We discuss recent advances towards matter-wave interference experiments with free beams of metallic and dielectric nanoparticles. They require a brilliant source, an efficient detection scheme and a coherent method to divide the de Broglie…
Nearly two centuries ago Talbot first observed the fascinating effect whereby light propagating through a periodic structure generates a `carpet' of image revivals in the near field. Here we report the first observation of the spatial…
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…
Scattering cold particles on an $N$-slit grating is shown to reproduce an interference pattern, that manifests itself in the near-field region as the fractal Talbot carpet. In the far-field region the pattern is transformed to an ordinary…
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…
Paths of particles, emitted from distributed sources and passing out through slits of two gratings, $G_{0}$ and $G_{1}$, up to detectors, have been computed in details by the path integral method. The slits are represented by Gaussian…
A well-known phenomenon in both optics and quantum mechanics is the so-called Talbot effect. This near field interference effect arises when infinitely periodic diffracting structures or gratings are illuminated by highly coherent light or…
We consider various effects that are encountered in matter wave interference experiments with massive nanoparticles. The text-book example of far-field interference at a grating is compared with diffraction into the dark field behind an…
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 the temporal Talbot effect for trapped matter waves using ultracold atoms in an optical lattice. We investigate the phase evolution of an array of essentially non-interacting matter waves and observe matter-wave collapse and…
We consider the light scattering problem for a Gaussian beam and a (spherical) particle at arbitrary location. Within the beam cross section, the total electromagnetic field is the superposition of the incident beam and the scattered wave.…
We investigate the suppression of matter-wave Talbot interference under environmentally induced decoherence. The system is modeled as an atomic beam diffracted by a periodic grating, whose transverse dynamics is described within the…
Starting from an elementary model and refining it to take into account more realistic effects, we discuss the limitations and advantages of matter-wave interferometry in different configurations. We focus on the possibility to apply this…
The Talbot effect, in which a wave imprinted with transverse periodicity reconstructs itself at regular intervals, is a diffraction phenomenon that occurs in many physical systems. Here we present the first observation of the Talbot effect…
We discuss matter wave experiments in a near-field interferometer and focus on dephasing phenomena due to inertial forces. Their presence may result in a significant reduction of the observed interference contrast, even though they do not…
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 extend the theory of matter-wave interferometry of point-like particles to non-spherical objects by taking the orientational degrees of freedom into account. In particular, we derive the grating transformation operator, that maps the…