Fast hydrogen atom diffraction through monocrystalline graphene

Abstract

We report fast atom diffraction through single-layer graphene using hydrogen atoms at kinetic energies from 150 to 1200 eV. High-resolution images reveal overlapping hexagonal patterns from coexisting monocrystalline domains. Time-of-flight tagging confirms negligible energy loss, making the method suitable for matter-wave interferometry. The diffraction is well described by the eikonal approximation, with accurate modeling requiring the full 3D interaction potential from DFT. Simpler models fail to reproduce the data, highlighting the exceptional sensitivity of diffraction patterns to atom-surface interactions and their potential for spectroscopic applications.

6 pages and 5 figures (main text), 6 pages and 5 figures (supplemental material).Revised Theory section: comparison of different levels of approximation of the H-graphene potential; revised Conclusion section: comparison with electron diffraction; revised figure captions

References in corpus (9)

• Quantum ESPRESSO: a modular and open-source software project for quantum simulations of materials
• Advanced capabilities for materials modelling with Quantum ESPRESSO
• The structure of suspended graphene sheets
• Quantum ESPRESSO toward the exascale
• Imaging Grains and Grain Boundaries in Single-Layer Graphene: An Atomic Patchwork Quilt
• Ripple Texturing of Suspended Graphene Atomic Membranes
• An atomically thin matter-wave beamsplitter
• Dark-field transmission electron microscopy and the Debye-Waller factor of graphene
• Diffraction of atomic matter waves through a 2D crystal