Ubiquitous diffraction resonances in positronium formation from fullerenes

TL;DR

This paper predicts a universal diffraction resonance effect in positronium formation from fullerenes, revealing structured cross sections and recoil momenta that could enable new nanomaterial spectroscopy techniques.

Contribution

It introduces a novel diffraction-based explanation for positronium formation resonances in fullerenes, suggesting a new spectroscopic method for nanomaterials.

Findings

Resonance trains in Ps formation cross sections as a function of positron energy.

Structured recoil momenta analogous to single-slit diffraction fringes.

Universal diffraction effect underlying Ps formation from fullerenes.

Abstract

Due to the dominant electron capture by positrons from the molecular wall and the spatial dephasing across the wall-width, a powerful diffraction effect universally underlies the positronium (Ps) formation from fullerenes. This results into trains of resonances in the Ps formation cross section as a function of the positron beam energy, producing uniform structures in recoil momenta in analogy with classical single-slit diffraction fringes in the configuration space. The prediction opens a hitherto unknown avenue of Ps spectroscopy with nanomaterials.