Diffraction of metastable helium atoms by a transmission grating |
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Authors: | O. Carnal A. Faulstich J. Mlynek |
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Affiliation: | (1) Universität Konstanz, Fakultät für Physik, W-7750 Konstanz, Germany |
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Abstract: | We report on the diffraction of metastable helium atoms (de Broglie wavelength dB 1Å) passing a free-standing gold grating with a periodicity of 0.5 m. The observed positions and intensities of the different diffraction peaks are in good agreement with a theoretical model for the grating shape. The overall transmission of the grating for the excited state atoms is about 30%, mainly determined by the grating geometry. Our result indicates that microfabricated transmission gratings can be used as efficient and coherent beam splitters for rare gas atoms in long-lived excited states. This fact offers interesting possibilities in view of atom interferometry with metastable noble gas atoms. |
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Keywords: | 07.77+p 35.10-d 42.10Hc |
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