Abstract
Matter-wave near-field interference can imprint a nano-scale fringe pattern onto a molecular beam, which allows observing its shifts in the presence of even very small external forces. Here we demonstrate quantum interference of the pre-vitamin 7-dehydrocholesterol and discuss the conceptual challenges of magnetic deflectometry in a near-field interferometer as a tool to explore photochemical processes within molecules whose center of mass is quantum delocalized.
Highlights
Matter-wave near-field interference can imprint a nano-scale fringe pattern onto a molecular beam, which allows observing its shifts in the presence of even very small external forces
We describe successful matter-wave interference with 7-DHC and a thought experiment that exploits the fact that modifications of the magnetic susceptibility will be seen as a relative shift of the de Broglie interference fringe pattern in an external magnetic field
7-dehydrocholesterol (7-DHC, amu) to previtamin D3 is well understood in solution, but little studied in the gas phase
Summary
In quantum mechanics we attribute both wave and particle properties to the basic entities of the theory, and following Louis de Broglie [1] we associate an oscillatory phenomenon of wavelength λdB = h/mv to the center-of-mass motion of any particle of mass m and velocity v, even if it has a rich internal structure and exhibits internal excitations This can be proven in a very intuitive way using matter-wave diffraction [2,3], in analogy to Young’s famous double slit experiment. By tracing molecular density patterns requires quantum mechanics [3,10,11,12,19] We confirm this here, by the interference contrast as a function of the diffracting laser power (Figure 2b). Pattern could be mistaken as a classical Moiré shadow, the detailed dependence of the fringe visibility on the diffracting laser power can only be reproduced by quantum theory [18].
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