Bragg diffraction of large organic molecules

Abstract

We demonstrate Bragg diffraction of the antibiotic ciprofloxacin and the dye molecule phthalocyanine at a thick optical grating. The observed patterns show a single dominant diffraction order with the expected dependence on the incidence angle as well as oscillating population transfer between the undiffracted and diffracted beams. We achieve an equal-amplitude splitting of $14\hslash k$ (photon momenta) and maximum momentum transfer of $18\hslash k$. This paves the way for efficient, large-momentum beam splitters and mirrors for hot and complex molecules.

8 pages, 7 figures (including Supplemental Material). Corrected errors in bibliography

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