Experimental decoherence in molecule interferometry

TL;DR

This paper reviews experiments on decoherence in molecule interferometry, highlighting how complex molecular structures influence quantum coherence and the transition to classical behavior.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of decoherence mechanisms in molecule interferometry, emphasizing the role of internal molecular complexity.

Findings

Complex molecules can exhibit quantum interference despite their internal structure.

Decoherence effects increase with molecular complexity and environmental interactions.

Molecule interferometry helps understand quantum-to-classical transition.

Abstract

Complex molecules are intriguing objects at the interface between quantum and classical phenomena. Compared to the electrons, neutrons, or atoms studied in earlier matter-wave experiments, they feature a much more complicated internal structure, but can still behave as quantum objects in their center-of-mass motion. Molecules may involve a large number of vibrational modes and highly excited rotational states, they can emit thermal photons, electrons, or even atoms, and they exhibit large cross sections for collisional interactions with residual background gases. This makes them ideal candidates for decoherence experiments which we review in this contribution.