Non-destructive quantum reflection of helium dimers and trimers from a plane ruled grating

作者：Zhao Bum Suk^*; Zhang Weiqing; Schoellkopf Wieland

来源：Molecular Physics, 2013, 111(12-13): 1772-1780.

DOI：10.1080/00268976.2013.787150

• quantum reflection
• helium dimer
• helium trimer
• matter-wave diffraction
• blazed diffraction grating

We report on the non-destructive scattering and diffraction of He, He-2 and He-3 from a plane ruled reflection grating. At grazing incidence the normal component of the particle's wave-vector is sufficiently small to allow for quantum reflection at the attractive Casimir-van der Waals particle-surface interaction potential. Quantum reflection occurs tens of nanometres in front of the surface, before the dimers and trimers reach the region where the surface-induced forces would inevitably cause the breakup of the fragile bonds. The reflected particles are identified via their mass-dependent diffraction angles and by mass spectrometry. The intensity distributions of the observed diffraction patterns are discussed in terms of the grating's blaze angle.

• 出版日期2013-7-1