Impact of Casimir-Polder interaction on Poisson-spot diffraction at a dielectric sphere

Joshua L. Hemmerich, Robert Bennett, Thomas Reisinger, Stefan Nimmrichter, Johannes Fiedler, Horst Hahn, Herbert Gleiter, and Stefan Yoshi Buhmann
Phys. Rev. A 94, 023621 – Published 17 August 2016

Abstract

Diffraction of matter waves is an important demonstration of the fact that objects in nature possess a mixture of particlelike and wavelike properties. Unlike in the case of light diffraction, matter waves are subject to a vacuum-mediated interaction with diffraction obstacles. Here we present a detailed account of this effect through the calculation of the attractive Casimir-Polder potential between a dielectric sphere and an atomic beam. Furthermore, we use our calculated potential to make predictions about the diffraction patterns to be observed in an ongoing experiment where a beam of indium atoms is diffracted around a silicon-dioxide sphere. The result is an amplification of the on-axis bright feature, which is the matter-wave analog of the well-known “Poisson spot” from optics. Our treatment confirms that the diffraction patterns resulting from our complete account of the sphere Casimir-Polder potential are indistinguishable from those found via a large-sphere nonretarded approximation in the discussed experiments, establishing the latter as an adequate model.

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  • Received 30 June 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.94.023621

©2016 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Atomic, Molecular & OpticalAccelerators & BeamsParticles & Fields

Authors & Affiliations

Joshua L. Hemmerich1, Robert Bennett1, Thomas Reisinger2, Stefan Nimmrichter3, Johannes Fiedler1, Horst Hahn2, Herbert Gleiter2, and Stefan Yoshi Buhmann1,4

  • 1Physikalisches Institut, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Hermann-Herder-Strasse 4, D-79104 Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
  • 2Institute of Nanotechnology, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Hermann-von-Helmholtz-Platz 1, D-76344 Karlsruhe, Germany
  • 3Centre for Quantum Technologies, National University of Singapore, 3 Science Drive 2, Singapore 117543, Singapore
  • 4Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Albertstrasse 19, D-79104 Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany

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Issue

Vol. 94, Iss. 2 — August 2016

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