On Quantum Reflection and The Casimir Effect : Application to atom-surface scattering

Quantum reflection of the light, neutral and surface sensitive 3He-atom is a novel method for investigating long-range attractive atom-surface potentials. This thesis presents the detailed analysis of experimental data obtained with the Atomic Beam Spin Echo (ABSE) spectrometer by scattering 3He from a strongly disordered alpha-quartz dielectric surface and from an atomically rough gold surface under grazing incidence. The data are interpreted in terms of the quantum reflection theory recently developed by Friedrich et al. The quantum reflection coefficient is measured at energies from microeV down to neV and increases by approximately 5 orders of magnitude. The influence of surface disorder is modelled and properly taken into account. The parameters of the long-range attractive Casimir-van der Waals potential extracted from the fits to the corrected data show excellent agreement with the values given in literature. The analysis of the reflection coefficient from alpha-quartz forms the first experimental confirmation of the high-energy asymptotic behavior determined by the non-retarded van der Waals potential. The scattering experiment on the 3He-Au(111) system represents the first quantitative measurement of the Casimir effect for the interaction of a single atom with a single conductive surface.

Level thesis:degree_level

thesis.doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher

Universität Heidelberg

Year

2003

Author dc:creator

• Droujinina, Viola

Contributors dc:contributor

• De Kieviet, Maarten

Repository record source_url

http://www.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/archiv/3722

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de:3722