Related papers: Measurement of atomic diffraction phases induced b…
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…
Four atom optics experiments that each serve to measure atom-surface interactions near nanofabricated gratings are presented here. In these experiments atoms in a beam travel within 25 nm of a material grating bar, and the analysis…
The interaction of Na atoms with a surface was probed by inserting a nanofabricated material grating into one arm of an atom interferometer (IFM). This technique permits a direct measurement of the change in phase and coherence of matter…
The development of nanotechnology and atom optics relies on understanding how atoms behave and interact with their environment. Isolated atoms can exhibit wave-like (coherent) behaviour with a corresponding de Broglie wavelength and phase…
The strength of an atom-surface interaction is determined by studying atom diffraction from a rotated material grating. A phasor diagram is developed to interpret why diffraction orders are never completely suppressed when a complex…
The wave function of an atom passed through a diffraction grating acquires a regular space structure and the interaction of another particle with this atom can be thought of as scattering on a 'quantum grating' composed of a single atom.…
An atom interferometer based on a Stern-Gerlach beam splitter is proposed. Atom scattering from a combination of magnetic quadrupole and homogeneous magnetic fields is considered. Using Raman transitions, atoms are coherently excited into…
Molecular beams of rare gas atoms and D_2 have been diffracted from 100 nm period SiN_x transmission gratings. The relative intensities of the diffraction peaks out to the 8th order depend on the diffracting particle and are interpreted in…
Matter-wave interferometry has become an essential tool in studies on the foundations of quantum physics and for precision measurements. Mechanical gratings have played an important role as coherent beamsplitters for atoms, molecules and…
Diffraction of atoms by laser is a very important tool for matter wave optics. Although this process is well understood, the phase shifts induced by this diffraction process are not well known. In this paper, we make analytic calculations…
We have built and operated an atom interferometer of the Mach-Zehnder type. The atomic wave is a supersonic beam of lithium seeded in argon and the mirrors and beam-splitters for the atomic wave are based on elastic Bragg diffraction on…
Lasers with wavelengths of the order of the atomic size are becoming available. We explore the behavior of light-matter interactions in this emergent field by considering the atomic Kapitza-Dirac effect. We derive the diffraction patterns,…
We have studied the optical properties of gratings micro-fabricated into semiconductor wafers, which can be used for simplifying cold-atom experiments. The study entailed characterisation of diffraction efficiency as a function of coating,…
Efficient imaging of biomolecules, 2D materials and electromagnetic fields depends on retrieval of the phase of transmitted electrons. We demonstrate a method to measure phase in a scanning transmission electron microscope using a…
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…
A new technique for maintaining high contrast in an atom interferometer is used to measure large de Broglie wave phase shifts. Dependence of an interaction induced phase on the atoms' velocity is compensated by applying an engineered…
The diffraction of electromagnetic plane waves by a rectangular grating formed by discrete steps in the interface of a homogeneous, isotropic, linear, negative phase--velocity (negative index) material with free space is studied using the…
A novel atomic beam splitter, using reflection of atoms off an evanescent light wave, is investigated theoretically. The intensity or frequency of the light is modulated in order to create sidebands on the reflected de Broglie wave. The…
Thermal energy atom scattering at a surface with grazing incidence conditions is an innovative method for investigating dispersive atom-surface interactions with potential application in quantum sensing interferometry. The complete…
The recent development of phase-grating moir\'e neutron interferometry promises a wide range of impactful experiments from dark-field imaging of material microstructure to precise measurements of fundamental constants. However, the contrast…