Bragg Diffraction of Large Organic Molecules
Abstract
We demonstrate Bragg diffraction of the antibiotic ciprofloxacin and the dye molecule phthalocyanine at a thick optical grating. The observed patterns show a single dominant diffraction order with the expected dependence on the incidence angle as well as oscillating population transfer between the undiffracted and diffracted beams. We achieve an equal-amplitude splitting of 14 ℏ k (photon momenta) and maximum momentum transfer of 18 ℏ k . This paves the way for efficient, large-momentum beam splitters and mirrors for hot and complex molecules.
- Publication:
-
Physical Review Letters
- Pub Date:
- July 2020
- DOI:
- 10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.033604
- arXiv:
- arXiv:2006.11080
- Bibcode:
- 2020PhRvL.125c3604B
- Keywords:
-
- Physics - Optics;
- Quantum Physics
- E-Print:
- 8 pages, 7 figures (including Supplemental Material). Corrected errors in bibliography