title: Universal diffraction of atoms and molecules from a quantum reflection grating.
abstract: Since de Broglie's work on the wave nature of particles, various optical phenomena have been observed with matter waves of atoms and molecules. However, the analogy between classical and atom/molecule optics is not exact because of different dispersion relations. In addition, according to de Broglie's formula, different combinations of particle mass and velocity can give the same de Broglie wavelength. As a result, even for identical wavelengths, different molecular properties such as electric polarizabilities, Casimir-Polder forces, and dissociation energies modify (and potentially suppress) the resulting matter-wave optical phenomena such as diffraction intensities or interference effects. We report on the universal behavior observed in matter-wave diffraction of He atoms and He2 and D2 molecules from a ruled grating. Clear evidence for emerging beam resonances is observed in the diffraction patterns, which are quantitatively the same for all three particles and only depend on the de Broglie wavelength. A model, combining secondary scattering and quantum reflection, permits us to trace the observed universal behavior back to the peculiar principles of quantum reflection.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Ulsan 689-798, Korea.; Department of Physics, UNIST, Ulsan 689-798, Korea.
authors.forename: Bum Suk
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-0470-6396
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Faradayweg 4-6, 14195 Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Weiqing
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Faradayweg 4-6, 14195 Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Wieland
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-0564-203X
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Schöllkopf
mesh_terms: D008962:Models, Theoretical; D055620:Optical Phenomena; D045663:Quantum Dots; D011789:Quantum Theory
keywords: Quantum reflection; Rayleigh-Wood anomaly; emerging beam resonance; grazing incidence atom optics; helium dimer; matter-wave optics