scholarly journals Grating Diffraction of Molecular Beams: Present Day Implementations of Otto Stern’s Concept

Author(s):  
Wieland Schöllkopf

AbstractWhen Otto Stern embarked on molecular-beam experiments in his new lab at Hamburg University a century ago, one of his interests was to demonstrate the wave-nature of atoms and molecules that had been predicted shortly before by Louis de Broglie. As the effects of diffraction and interference provide conclusive evidence for wave-type behavior, Otto Stern and his coworkers conceived two matter-wave diffraction experiments employing their innovative molecular-beam method. The first concept assumed the molecular ray to coherently scatter off a plane ruled grating at grazing incidence conditions, while the second one was based on the coherent scattering from a cleaved crystal surface. The latter concept allowed Stern and his associates to demonstrate the wave behavior of atoms and molecules and to validate de Broglie’s formula. The former experiment, however, fell short of providing evidence for diffraction of matter waves. It was not until 2007 that the grating diffraction experiment was retried with a modern molecular-beam apparatus. Fully resolved matter-wave diffraction patterns were observed, confirming the viability of Otto Stern’s experimental concept. The correct explanation of the experiment accounts for quantum reflection, another wave effect incompatible with the particle picture, which was not foreseen by Stern and his contemporaries.

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. e1500901 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bum Suk Zhao ◽  
Weiqing Zhang ◽  
Wieland Schöllkopf

Since de Broglie’s work on the wave nature of particles, various optical phenomena have been observed with matter waves of atoms and molecules. However, the analogy between classical and atom/molecule optics is not exact because of different dispersion relations. In addition, according to de Broglie’s formula, different combinations of particle mass and velocity can give the same de Broglie wavelength. As a result, even for identical wavelengths, different molecular properties such as electric polarizabilities, Casimir-Polder forces, and dissociation energies modify (and potentially suppress) the resulting matter-wave optical phenomena such as diffraction intensities or interference effects. We report on the universal behavior observed in matter-wave diffraction of He atoms and He2 and D2 molecules from a ruled grating. Clear evidence for emerging beam resonances is observed in the diffraction patterns, which are quantitatively the same for all three particles and only depend on the de Broglie wavelength. A model, combining secondary scattering and quantum reflection, permits us to trace the observed universal behavior back to the peculiar principles of quantum reflection.


Author(s):  
Douglas L. Dorset ◽  
Anthony J. Hancock

Lipids containing long polymethylene chains were among the first compounds subjected to electron diffraction structure analysis. It was only recently realized, however, that various distortions of thin lipid microcrystal plates, e.g. bends, polar group and methyl end plane disorders, etc. (1-3), restrict coherent scattering to the methylene subcell alone, particularly if undistorted molecular layers have well-defined end planes. Thus, ab initio crystal structure determination on a given single uncharacterized natural lipid using electron diffraction data can only hope to identify the subcell packing and the chain axis orientation with respect to the crystal surface. In lipids based on glycerol, for example, conformations of long chains and polar groups about the C-C bonds of this moiety still would remain unknown.One possible means of surmounting this difficulty is to investigate structural analogs of the material of interest in conjunction with the natural compound itself. Suitable analogs to the glycerol lipids are compounds based on the three configurational isomers of cyclopentane-1,2,3-triol shown in Fig. 1, in which three rotameric forms of the natural glycerol derivatives are fixed by the ring structure (4-7).


2011 ◽  
Vol 44 (5) ◽  
pp. 983-990 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Elschner ◽  
Alexandr A. Levin ◽  
Lutz Wilde ◽  
Jörg Grenzer ◽  
Christian Schroer ◽  
...  

The electrical and optical properties of molecular thin films are widely used, for instance in organic electronics, and depend strongly on the molecular arrangement of the organic layers. It is shown here how atomic structural information can be obtained from molecular films without further knowledge of the single-crystal structure. C60 fullerene was chosen as a representative test material. A 250 nm C60 film was investigated by grazing-incidence X-ray diffraction and the data compared with a Bragg–Brentano X-ray diffraction measurement of the corresponding C60 powder. The diffraction patterns of both powder and film were used to calculate the pair distribution function (PDF), which allowed an investigation of the short-range order of the structures. With the help of the PDF, a structure model for the C60 molecular arrangement was determined for both C60 powder and thin film. The results agree very well with a classical whole-pattern fitting approach for the C60 diffraction patterns.


2013 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 887-892 ◽  
Author(s):  
Genziana Bussone ◽  
Rüdiger Schott ◽  
Andreas Biermanns ◽  
Anton Davydok ◽  
Dirk Reuter ◽  
...  

Grazing-incidence X-ray diffraction measurements on single GaAs nanowires (NWs) grown on a (111)-oriented GaAs substrate by molecular beam epitaxy are reported. The positions of the NWs are intentionally determined by a direct implantation of Au with focused ion beams. This controlled arrangement in combination with a nanofocused X-ray beam allows the in-plane lattice parameter of single NWs to be probed, which is not possible for randomly grown NWs. Reciprocal space maps were collected at different heights along the NW to investigate the crystal structure. Simultaneously, substrate areas with different distances from the Au-implantation spots below the NWs were probed. Around the NWs, the data revealed a 0.4% decrease in the lattice spacing in the substrate compared with the expected unstrained value. This suggests the presence of a compressed region due to Au implantation.


1990 ◽  
Vol 208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ichiro Hirosawa ◽  
Jun'ichiro Nizuki ◽  
Toru Tatsumi ◽  
Koichi Akimoto ◽  
Junji Matsui

ABSTRACTIn order to investigate the initial oxidation process Qf the Si (111) surface, we have studied the molecular beam deposited Si0 2/Si(111)-7×7 interface structure using grazing incidence X-ray diffraction geometry. We suggest a three-fold symmetry structural model composed of stacking fault layer, dimer layer and additional ordered atoms. The three-fold symmetry structure comes from the preference for oxidation in the faulted half of the 7×7 structure.


2020 ◽  
Vol 168 ◽  
pp. 00051
Author(s):  
Ihor Kratkovskyi ◽  
Ernest Yefremov ◽  
Kostyantyn Ishchenko ◽  
Sergo Khomeriki

The dissipative energy losses of the explosion on the explosive-rock contact are usually evaluated with comparative analysis of the particle size distribution of finely dispersed fractions (0-100 microns). The more tiny particles contained in the destruction products, the higher there is a level of energy loss during the explosion. Fine dust granulometric characteristics are determined by processing the mass measurements data of the individual smallest particles sizes when decoding microphotographs obtained by a microscope. However due to the chromatic aberrations due the wave nature of light and the optical systems imperfection, it is not possible to reliably estimate the mass and granulometric characteristics particles of micron size. X-ray diffraction method for studying ultrafine rock fracture products makes it possible to estimate the dissipative energy losses on explosive-rock contact based on the reflected X-ray beam total intensity in diffractograms. In order to establish the effectiveness of methods for reducing the level of dissipative energy losses of an explosion, X-ray diffraction patterns of finely dispersed fracture products of rock samples under various conditions of dynamic loading are analyzed (using different charge designs, attenuating the rocks by the action of a surfactant, and the force action of a different gradient stress field).


Crystals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 728
Author(s):  
Markys G. Cain ◽  
Margo Staruch ◽  
Paul Thompson ◽  
Christopher Lucas ◽  
Didier Wermeille ◽  
...  

In this work, we present a grazing incidence X-ray diffraction study of the surface of a 0.24Pb(In1/2Nb1/2)O3-Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3 (PIN-PMN-PT) [011] poled rhombohedral single crystal. The near surface microstructure (the top several tens to hundreds of unit cells) was measured in situ under an applied electric field. The strains calculated from the change in lattice parameters have been compared to the macroscopic strain measured with a strain gauge affixed to the sample surface. The depth dependence of the electrostrain at the crystal surface was investigated as a function of temperature. The analysis revealed hidden sweet spots featuring unusually high strains that were observed as a function of depth, temperature and orientation of the lattice planes.


1997 ◽  
Vol 44 (11-12) ◽  
pp. 2583-2589 ◽  
Author(s):  
Al-Amin Dhirani ◽  
David A. Kokorowski ◽  
Richard A. Rubenstein ◽  
Troy D. Hammond ◽  
Bernd Rohwedder ◽  
...  

2012 ◽  
Vol 1396 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohana K. Rajpalke ◽  
Thirumaleshwara N. Bhat ◽  
Basanta Roul ◽  
Mahesh Kumar ◽  
S. B. Krupanidhi

ABSTRACTNonpolar a-plane InN/GaN heterostructures were grown by plasma assisted molecular beam epitaxy. The growth of nonpolar a- plane InN / GaN heterostructures were confirmed by high resolution x-ray diffraction study. Reflection high energy electron diffraction patterns show the reasonably smooth surface of a-plane GaN and island-like growth for nonpolar a-plane InN film, which is further confirmed by scanning electron micrographs. An absorption edge in the optical spectra has the energy of 0.74 eV, showing blueshifts from the fundamental band gap of 0.7 eV. The rectifying behavior of the I-V curve indicates the existence of Schottky barrier at the InN and GaN interface. The Schottky barrier height (φb) and the ideality factor (η) for the InN/GaN heterostructures found to be 0.58 eV and 2.05 respectively.


1989 ◽  
Vol 159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Koichi Akimoto ◽  
Jun'Ichiro Mizuki ◽  
Ichiro Hirosawa ◽  
Junji Matsui

ABSTRACTSurface superstructures (reconstructed structures) have been observed by many authors. However, it is not easy to confirm that a superstructure does exist at an interface between two solid layers. The present paper reports a direct observation, by a grazing incidence x-ray diffraction technique with use of synchrotron radiation, of superstructures at the interface. Firstly, the boron-induced R30° reconstruction at the Si interface has been investigated. At the a Si/Si(111) interface, boron atoms at 1/3 ML are substituted for silicon atoms, thus forming a R30° lattice. Even at the interface between a solid phase epitaxial Si(111) layer and a Si(111) substrate, the boron-induced R30° reconstruction has been also observed. Secondly, SiO2/Si(100)-2×l interfacial superstructures have been investigated. Interfacial superstructures have been only observed in the samples of which SiO2 layers have been deposited with a molecular beam deposition method. Finally, the interfaces of MOCVD-grown AIN/GaAs(100) have been shown to have 1×4 and 1×6 superstructures.


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