Figure 2: Layout of the Kapitza-Dirac-Talbot-Lau (KDTL) interference experiment.
The effusive source emits molecules that are velocity-selected by the three delimiters S1, S2 and S3. The KDTL interferometer is composed of two SiNx gratings G1 and G3, as well as the standing light wave G2. The optical dipole force grating imprints a phase modulation ϕ(x)∝αopt·P/(v·wy) onto the matter wave. Here αopt is the optical polarizability, P the laser power, v the molecular velocity and wy the laser beam waist perpendicular to the molecular beam. The molecules are detected using electron impact ionization and quadrupole mass spectrometry.
