Figure 3: Quantum interferograms of tailor-made large organic molecules.
Quantum interference well beyond the classical expectations has been observed for all molecules in the set. In all panels, the black circles represent the experimental result, the blue line is a sinusoidal fit to the data and the shaded area indicates the detector dark rate. (a) The beam of perfluoroalkylated nanospheres, PFNS8, is characterized by a mean velocity of v=63 m s−1 with a full width ΔvFWHM=13 m s−1. The observed contrast of Vobs=49±6% is in good agreement with the expected quantum contrast of Vquant=51% and is clearly discernible from the classically expected visibility of Vclass<1%. The stated uncertainty is the standard deviation of the fit to the data. (b) For PFNS10, the signal was too weak to allow a precise velocity measurement and quantum calculation. The oven position for these particles, however, limits the molecular velocity to v<80 m s−1 and therefore allows us to define an upper bound to the classical visibility. (c) For TPPF84, we measure v=95 m s−1 with ΔvFWHM=34 m s−1. This results in Vobs=33±3% with Vquant=30% and Vclass<1%. (d) The signal for TPPF152 is equally low compared with that of PFNS10. For this compound we find Vobs=16±2%, Vquant=45% and Vclass=1%.
