Imaging with neutral atoms—a new matter‐wave microscope

Koch, Markus; Rehbein, Stefan; Schmahl, Günter; Reisinger, T.; Bracco, G.; Ernst, Wolfgang; Holst, Bodil

doi:10.1111/j.1365-2818.2007.01874.x

Cited by 87 publications

(74 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…As can be deduced from the theory presented in Sec. IV, the chromatic point spread function ͑PSF͒ for a beam with speed ratio S = 24 and an effective zone plate radius 8 r N = 215 m has a width of 14.9Ϯ 0.6 m. This confirms that the width of the virtual source is much smaller than the skimmer width, as expected. Note that the attained focus is much larger than in the helium experiments.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 69%

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Neutral atom and molecule focusing using a Fresnel zone plate

Reisinger

Holst

2008

Journal of Vacuum Science &Amp; Technology B: Microelectronics and Nanometer Structures Processing, Measurement, and Phenomena

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Focusing of neutral atoms and molecules has several potential applications. The very first microscopy images using helium as an imaging probe were published earlier this year. Another possible application is to study the diffusion of atoms and molecules through materials with high spatial resolution by stepping a porous or permeable sample across the focused beam. With this application in mind, the authors present the best resolution transmission images hitherto achieved with helium atoms ͑less than 2 m͒ of a thin carbon film with 2 m holes. Furthermore, they present the first experiment using a Fresnel zone plate to focus neutral molecules. They used a beam of deuterium ͑D 2 ͒ which was focused down to 15.2Ϯ 0.5 m. D 2 was chosen because it fits in mass to the geometry of our system, which is optimized for helium. However, the method can be extended to hydrogen ͑H 2 ͒ or other molecules by using a suitably adapted zone plate. In both cases the focus was limited by chromatic aberrations, caused by the velocity spread of the beams. Finally, they present calculations exploring the resolution limits for focusing of molecular beams using Fresnel zone plates. The calculations show that Fresnel focusing down to 170 nm full width at half maximum is possible with presently available techniques.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 69%

“…The idea of utilizing a helium beam for matter-wave microscopy is not new, 7 but was demonstrated for the first time to full extend earlier this year, when the first micrograph using neutral helium atoms as an imaging probe was published 8 ͑see also Nature Research Highlights 9 ͒.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neutral atom and molecule focusing using a Fresnel zone plate

Reisinger

Holst

2008

Journal of Vacuum Science &Amp; Technology B: Microelectronics and Nanometer Structures Processing, Measurement, and Phenomena

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“…In fact, the first micrograph using helium atoms as an imaging probe has been reported recently. 2 The development of a SHeAM would imply a substantial improvement of our present knowledge of delicate biological materials, weak polymers, ceramics, and insulating glass surfaces, among other materials. Such samples are difficult to examine by electron microscopy techniques, due to sample charging or electron excitation effects.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Much effort has been devoted in recent years to the development of a scanning helium-atom microscope (SHeAM), [1][2][3][4] in which a focused beam of neutral He atoms is used as imaging probe. In fact, the first micrograph using helium atoms as an imaging probe has been reported recently.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Helium reflectivity and Debye temperature of graphene grown epitaxially on Ru(0001)

et al. 2011

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It is shown that the surface of an epitaxial graphene monolayer grown on Ru(0001) could be used as a quite efficient external mirror for He-atom microscopy, with a specular reflectivity of 20% of the incident beam. Furthermore, the system is stable up to 1150 K, and the He reflectivity remains almost unchanged after exposure to air. Additionally, the high reflectivity for H 2 molecules (11%) opens up the development of a H 2 microprobe suitable for lithography. The Debye temperature for this epitaxial graphene monolayer has been determined from a study of the temperature dependence of the He specular intensity as a function of incident parameters. A value of 1045 K has been obtained, which is much higher than the 590 K reported for graphite under similar conditions, and close to the value of 1287 K calculated for isolated graphene.

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“…The first helium focusing experiments of neutral helium were carried out by Carnal et al [6] using a metastable beam and later by Doak et al [7] using a ground-state helium beam. The first neutral helium microscopy images were obtained using a diffractive focusing element: A Fresnel-Soret zone plate (zone plate with a square-wave amplitude transmission function) was used to focus a helium beam down to a few micrometers [8] and later even below 1 μm [9]. An alternative pinhole helium microscopy setup was subsequently introduced [10][11][12][13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Zero-order filter for diffractive focusing of de Broglie matter waves

et al. 2017

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The manipulation of neutral atoms and molecules via their de Broglie wave properties, also referred to as de Broglie matter wave optics, is relevant for several fields ranging from fundamental quantum mechanics tests and quantum metrology to measurements of interaction potentials and new imaging techniques. However, there are several challenges. For example, for diffractive focusing elements, the zero-order beam provides a challenge because it decreases the signal contrast. Here we present the experimental realization of a zero-order filter, also referred to as an order-sorting aperture for de Broglie matter wave diffractive focusing elements. The zero-order filter makes it possible to measure even at low beam intensities. We present measurements of zero-order filtered, focused, neutral helium beams generated at source stagnation pressures between 11 and 81 bars. We show that for certain conditions the atom focusing at lower source stagnation pressures (broader velocity distributions) is better than what has previously been predicted. We present simulations with the software ray-tracing simulation package MCSTAS using a realistic helium source configuration, which gives very good agreement with our measurements.

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Imaging with neutral atoms—a new matter‐wave microscope

Cited by 87 publications

References 14 publications

Neutral atom and molecule focusing using a Fresnel zone plate

Neutral atom and molecule focusing using a Fresnel zone plate

Helium reflectivity and Debye temperature of graphene grown epitaxially on Ru(0001)

Zero-order filter for diffractive focusing of de Broglie matter waves

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