ABSTRACT
Interference of matter waves is at the heart of quantum physics and has been observed for a wide range of particles from electrons to complex molecules. Here, we demonstrate matter wave interference of single positrons using a period-magnifying Talbot-Lau interferometer based on material diffraction gratings. The system produced high-contrast periodic fringes, which were detected by means of nuclear emulsions capable of determining the impact point of each individual positron with submicrometric resolution. The measured energy dependence of fringe contrast in the range of 8 to 16 keV proves the quantum-mechanical origin of the periodic pattern and excludes classical projective effects, providing the first observation to date of antimatter wave interference. Future applications of this interferometric technique include the measurement of the gravitational acceleration of neutral antimatter systems exploiting the inertial sensing capabilities of Talbot-Lau interference.
ABSTRACT
The efficient production of cold antihydrogen atoms in particle traps at CERN's Antiproton Decelerator has opened up the possibility of performing direct measurements of the Earth's gravitational acceleration on purely antimatter bodies. The goal of the AEgIS collaboration is to measure the value of g for antimatter using a pulsed source of cold antihydrogen and a Moiré deflectometer/Talbot-Lau interferometer. The same antihydrogen beam is also very well suited to measuring precisely the ground-state hyperfine splitting of the anti-atom. The antihydrogen formation mechanism chosen by AEgIS is resonant charge exchange between cold antiprotons and Rydberg positronium. A series of technical developments regarding positrons and positronium (Ps formation in a dedicated room-temperature target, spectroscopy of the n=1-3 and n=3-15 transitions in Ps, Ps formation in a target at 10 K inside the 1 T magnetic field of the experiment) as well as antiprotons (high-efficiency trapping of [Formula: see text], radial compression to sub-millimetre radii of mixed [Formula: see text] plasmas in 1 T field, high-efficiency transfer of [Formula: see text] to the antihydrogen production trap using an in-flight launch and recapture procedure) were successfully implemented. Two further critical steps that are germane mainly to charge exchange formation of antihydrogen-cooling of antiprotons and formation of a beam of antihydrogen-are being addressed in parallel. The coming of ELENA will allow, in the very near future, the number of trappable antiprotons to be increased by more than a factor of 50. For the antihydrogen production scheme chosen by AEgIS, this will be reflected in a corresponding increase of produced antihydrogen atoms, leading to a significant reduction of measurement times and providing a path towards high-precision measurements.This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue 'Antiproton physics in the ELENA era'.
ABSTRACT
The precise measurement of forces is one way to obtain deep insight into the fundamental interactions present in nature. In the context of neutral antimatter, the gravitational interaction is of high interest, potentially revealing new forces that violate the weak equivalence principle. Here we report on a successful extension of a tool from atom optics--the moiré deflectometer--for a measurement of the acceleration of slow antiprotons. The setup consists of two identical transmission gratings and a spatially resolving emulsion detector for antiproton annihilations. Absolute referencing of the observed antimatter pattern with a photon pattern experiencing no deflection allows the direct inference of forces present. The concept is also straightforwardly applicable to antihydrogen measurements as pursued by the AEgIS collaboration. The combination of these very different techniques from high energy and atomic physics opens a very promising route to the direct detection of the gravitational acceleration of neutral antimatter.
ABSTRACT
The potential of positron annihilation spectroscopy (PAS) for defect characterization at the atomic scale in semiconductors has been demonstrated in thin multilayer structures of SiGe (50 nm) grown on UTB (ultra-thin body) SOI (silicon-on-insulator). A slow positron beam was used to probe the defect profile. The SiO(2)/Si interface in the UTB-SOI was well characterized, and a good estimation of its depth has been obtained. The chemical analysis indicates that the interface does not contain defects, but only strongly localized charged centers. In order to promote the relaxation, the samples have been submitted to a post-growth annealing treatment in vacuum. After this treatment, it was possible to observe the modifications of the defect structure of the relaxed film. Chemical analysis of the SiGe layers suggests a prevalent trapping site surrounded by germanium atoms, presumably Si vacancies associated with misfit dislocations and threading dislocations in the SiGe films.
