https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2003-00288-0
Time-of-flight resolved transmission-grating diffraction of molecular beams
Max-Planck-Institut für Strömungsforschung,
Bunsenstraße 10, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
Corresponding author: a wschoell@fhi-berlin.mpg.de
Received:
13
July
2003
Revised:
3
September
2003
Published online:
21
October
2003
Diffraction of molecular beams of CH3F, CHF3, and
metastable He
and Ne from a 100-nm-period
micro-fabricated transmission grating has been observed. Due to
the finite velocity spread and the corresponding temporal
coherence of the molecular beams, diffraction peaks of only the
first few orders are resolved in total-intensity measurements,
while higher order peaks are increasingly broadened and
smeared-out. Combining time-of-flight (TOF) measurements with
angular scans has allowed to observe TOF-resolved diffraction data
which yield full resolution of all detected diffraction peaks.
Here, this method has been applied to investigate
atom/molecule-surface interactions. In general, it can be used to
observe resolved diffraction patterns of a wide range of atomic
and molecular beams whose broad velocity distributions prevent
peak-resolution in conventional total-intensity measurements.
PACS: 39.20.+q – Atom interferometry techniques / 03.75.Be – Atom and neutron optics / 07.77.Gx – Atomic and molecular beam sources and detectors / 34.50.Dy – Interactions of atoms and molecules with surfaces; photon and electron emission; neutralization of ions
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag, 2004
