We report fast atom diffraction through single-layer graphene using hydrogen atoms at kinetic energies from 150 to 1200 eV. High-resolution images reveal overlapping hexagonal patterns from coexisting monocrystalline domains. Time-of-flight tagging confirms negligible energy loss, making the method suitable for matter-wave interferometry. The diffraction is well described by the eikonal approximation, with accurate modeling requiring the full 3D interaction potential from DFT. Simpler models fail to reproduce the data, highlighting the exceptional sensitivity of diffraction patterns to atom-surface interactions and their potential for spectroscopic applications.
@article{arxiv.2508.13175,
title = {Fast hydrogen atom diffraction through monocrystalline graphene},
author = {Pierre Guichard and Arnaud Dochain and Raphaël Marion and Pauline de Crombrugghe de Picquendaele and Nicolas Lejeune and Benoît Hackens and Paul-Antoine Hervieux and Xavier Urbain},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2508.13175},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
6 pages and 5 figures (main text), 6 pages and 5 figures (supplemental material).Revised Theory section: comparison of different levels of approximation of the H-graphene potential; revised Conclusion section: comparison with electron diffraction; revised figure captions