Abstract
The size of the helium trimer is determined by diffracting a beam of clusters from a 100 nm period grating inclined by 21°. Because of the bar thickness the projected slit width is roughly halved to 27 nm, increasing the sensitivity to the trimer size. The peak intensities measured out to the eighth order are evaluated via a few-body scattering theory. The trimer pair distance is found to be in agreement with predictions for the ground state. No evidence for a significant amount of Efimov trimers is found. Their concentration is estimated to be under 6%, less than expected.
- Received 3 December 2004
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.95.063002
©2005 American Physical Society