dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaAtomic versus molecular diffraction: Influence of break-ups and finite size
| Authors | Gerhard C. Hegerfeldt, Thorsten Koehler |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | quant-ph/9710026 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/9710026 |
| DOI | 10.1103/PhysRevA.57.2021 |
Abstract
Atomic diffraction through double slits and transmission gratings is well described in terms of the associated de Broglie waves and classical wave optics. However, for weakly bound and relatively large systems, such as the He_2 dimer, this might no longer hold true due to the possibility of break-up processes and finite-size effects. We therefore study the diffraction of weakly bound two-particle systems. If the bar and slit widths of the grating are much larger than the diameter of the two-particle system we recover the usual optics results. For smaller widths, however, deviations therefrom occur. We find that the location of possible diffraction peaks is indeed still governed by the usual grating function from optics, but the peaks may have a lower intensity. This is not unexpected when break-up processes are allowed. More unusually though, diffraction peaks which would be absent for de Broglie waves may reappear. The results are illustrated for diffraction of He_2.
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"abstract": "Atomic diffraction through double slits and transmission gratings is well\ndescribed in terms of the associated de Broglie waves and classical wave\noptics. However, for weakly bound and relatively large systems, such as the\nHe_2 dimer, this might no longer hold true due to the possibility of break-up\nprocesses and finite-size effects. We therefore study the diffraction of weakly\nbound two-particle systems. If the bar and slit widths of the grating are much\nlarger than the diameter of the two-particle system we recover the usual optics\nresults. For smaller widths, however, deviations therefrom occur. We find that\nthe location of possible diffraction peaks is indeed still governed by the\nusual grating function from optics, but the peaks may have a lower intensity.\nThis is not unexpected when break-up processes are allowed. More unusually\nthough, diffraction peaks which would be absent for de Broglie waves may\nreappear. The results are illustrated for diffraction of He_2.",
"arxiv_id": "quant-ph/9710026",
"authors": [
"Gerhard C. Hegerfeldt",
"Thorsten Koehler"
],
"categories": [
"quant-ph"
],
"doi": "10.1103/PhysRevA.57.2021",
"title": "Atomic versus molecular diffraction: Influence of break-ups and finite size",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/9710026"
},
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