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arXiv · 1606.09472

Impact of Casimir-Polder interaction on Poisson-spot diffraction at a dielectric sphere

Joshua Leo Hemmerich·Robert Bennett·Thomas Reisinger·Stefan Nimmrichter·Johannes Fiedler·Horst Hahn·Herbert Gleiter·Stefan Yoshi Buhmann
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Abstract

Diffraction of matter-waves is an important demonstration of the fact that objects in nature possess a mixture of particle-like and wave-like properties. Unlike in the case of light diffraction, matter-waves are subject to a vacuum-mediated interaction with diffraction obstacles. Here we present a detailed account of this effect through the calculation of the attractive Casimir-Polder potential between a dielectric sphere and an atomic beam. Furthermore, we use our calculated potential to make predictions about the diffraction patterns to be observed in an ongoing experiment where a beam of indium atoms is diffracted around a silicon dioxide sphere. The result is an amplification of the on-axis bright feature which is the matter-wave analogue of the well-known `Poisson spot' from optics. Our treatment confirms that the diffraction patterns resulting from our complete account of the sphere Casimir-Polder potential are indistinguishable from those found via a large-sphere non-retarded approximation in the discussed experiments, establishing the latter as an adequate model.

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Joshua Leo Hemmerich, Robert Bennett, Thomas Reisinger, Stefan Nimmrichter, Johannes Fiedler, Horst Hahn, Herbert Gleiter, Stefan Yoshi Buhmann. 2016-06-30. Impact of Casimir-Polder interaction on Poisson-spot diffraction at a dielectric sphere. https://doi.org/10.1103/physreva.94.023621

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