Related papers: Thermal non-equilibrium effects in quantum reflect…
We present first experimental data on the high energy behavior of helium atoms quantum reflecting from the nanoscopically disordered surface of a quartz crystal. The use of the light, stable and inert He atom not only opens the unique…
We take a closer look at the fundamental Casimir-Polder interaction between quantum particles and dispersive dielectric surfaces with surface polariton or plasmon resonances. Linear response theory shows that in the near field, van der…
We investigate the temperature dependence of the Casimir-Polder interaction in the electrostatic limit. This unusual phenomenon relies on the coupling between a virtual atomic transition and a thermal excitation of surface polariton modes.…
Quantum reflection is a universal property of atoms and molecules when scattered from surfaces in ultracold collisions. Recent experimental work has documented the quantum reflection and diffraction of He atoms, dimers, trimers and Neon…
The Casimir-Polder-Lifshitz force felt by an atom near the surface of a substrate is calculated out of thermal equilibrium in terms of the dielectric function of the material and of the atomic polarizability. The new force decays like…
The temperature dependence of the Casimir-Polder interaction addresses fundamental issues for understanding vacuum and thermal fluctuations. It is highly sensitive to surface waves which, in the near field, govern the thermal emission of a…
We explain why a system of cold $^{85}Rb$ atoms at temperatures of the order $T\approx 7.78\times 10^{-5}$ K and below, but not too low to lie in the quantum reflection regime, should be automatically repelled from the surface of a…
Among the fundamental quantum effects, quantum reflection (QR) is one of the most notable phenomena. Approximating arbitrary potentials in the Schr\"odinger equation as multistep potentials allows us to determine the reflection coefficient…
Quantum reflection of thermal He atoms from various surfaces (glass slide, GaAs wafer, flat and structured Cr) at grazing conditions is studied within the elastic close-coupling formalism. Comparison with the experimental results of B.S.…
We theoretically study the low-energy scattering of ultracold atoms by a dielectric nanosphere of silica glass levitated in a vacuum. The atom and dielectric surface interact via dispersion force of which strength sensitively depends on the…
We show that periodically doped, flat surfaces can act as reflective diffraction gratings for atomic and molecular matter waves. The diffraction element is realized by exploiting that charged dopants locally suppress quantum reflection from…
We observe high-resolution diffraction patterns of a thermal-energy helium-atom beam reflected from a microstructured surface grating at grazing incidence. The grating consists of 10-$\mu$m-wide Cr strips patterned on a quartz substrate and…
We describe an experimentally realistic situation of the quantum reflection of helium atoms from an oscillating surface. The temporal modulation of the potential induces clear sidebands in the reflection probability as a function of…
We here report coherent reflection of thermal He atom beams from various microscopically rough surfaces at grazing incidence. For a sufficiently small normal component $k_z$ of the incident wave-vector of the atom the reflection probability…
The Casimir-Polder and van der Waals interactions between an atom and a flat cavity wall are investigated under the influence of real conditions including the dynamic polarizability of the atom, actual conductivity of the wall material and…
We observed quantum reflection of ultracold atoms from the attractive potential of a solid surface. Extremely dilute Bose-Einstein condensates of ^{23}Na, with peak density 10^{11}-10^{12}atoms/cm^3, confined in a weak gravito-magnetic trap…
Spectroscopy is a unique experimental tool for measuring the fundamental Casimir-Polder interaction between excited state atoms, or other polarizable quantum objects, and a macroscopic surface. Spectroscopic measurements probe atoms at…
We present a theory for rigorous quantum scattering calculations of probabilities for chemical reactions of atoms with diatomic molecules in the presence of an external electric field. The approach is based on the fully uncoupled basis set…
We demonstrate that the thermal Casimir-Polder forces on molecules near a conducting surface whose transition wavelengths are comparable to the molecule-surface separation are dependent on the ambient temperature and molecular polarization…
Thermal rate coefficients for some atomic collisions have been observed to be remarkably independent of the details of interatomic interactions at short range. This makes these rate coefficients universal functions of the long-range…