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Phys. Rev. A 71, 052901 (2005) [8 pages]

Quantum reflection of He* on silicon

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Hilmar Oberst1, Yoshihisa Tashiro1, Kazuko Shimizu1,2, and Fujio Shimizu1,3
1Institute for Laser Science, University of Electro-Communications, Chofu-shi, Tokyo 182-8585, Japan
2Department of Applied Physics and Chemistry, University of Electro-Communications, Chofu-shi, Tokyo 182-8585, Japan
3NTT Basic Research Laboratories, NTT Corporation, and CREST, Morinoshita-Wakamiya, Atsugi 243-0198, Japan

Received 4 January 2005; published 11 May 2005

A cold beam of He*  (2  3S1) atoms is used at grazing incidence to study the quantum reflection on a flat polished silicon surface. We measure the reflectivity as a function of the normal incident velocity component between 3 and 30  cm∕s . Our result is in reasonable agreement with a calculation of the attractive van der Waals surface potential using the dielectric function of Si and the dipole polarizability of He* . We discuss the influence of the conductivity and of a thin oxide layer on the potential. By comparing our data to those previously measured with Ne* atoms, we are also able to confirm the scaling of the reflectivity with atomic mass.


©2005 The American Physical Society

URL: http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevA.71.052901
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.71.052901
PACS: 34.50.Dy, 03.75.−b, 32.80.Pj

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