Communication: Heavy atom quantum diffraction by scattering from surfaces

Abstract

Typically one expects that when a heavy particle collides with a surface, the scattered angular distribution will follow classical mechanics. The heavy mass usually assures that the coherence length of the incident particle in the direction of the propagation of the particle (the parallel direction) will be much shorter than the characteristic lattice length of the surface, thus leading to a classical description. Recent work on molecular interferometry has shown that extreme collimation of the beam creates a perpendicular coherence length which is sufficiently long so as to observe interference of very heavy species passing through a grating. Here we show, using quantum mechanical simulations, that the same effect will lead to quantum diffraction of heavy particles colliding with a surface. The effect is robust with respect to the incident energy, the angle of incidence, and the mass of the particle. © 2011 American Institute of Physics.