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De Broglie Optics

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Springer Handbook of Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics

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Abstract

De Broglie optics concerns the propagation of quantum mechanical particle waves, their reflection, refraction, diffraction, and interference. The basic principles of De Broglie optics, which are quite similar to the principles of ordinary light optics, do not depend much on the specific nature of the sort of particles under consideration – electron, neutron, atom, ion, or molecule, but the focus in this chapter is on the De Broglie optics of atoms and molecules. This sort of particle comes with a variety of internal degrees of freedom, which are easily addressed and manipulated with electromagnetic fields, in particular laser fields, and thereby allow for quite a broad spectrum of different applications in lithography, imaging, and precision measurement.

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  1. Institute of Physics and Astronomy, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany

    Carsten Henkel & Martin Wilkens

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  1. Carsten Henkel
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  2. Martin Wilkens
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Correspondence to Carsten Henkel or Martin Wilkens .

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  1. Dept. of Physics, University of Windsor, N9B 3P4, Windsor, ON, Canada

    Gordon W. F. Drake

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Henkel, C., Wilkens, M. (2023). De Broglie Optics. In: Drake, G.W.F. (eds) Springer Handbook of Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics. Springer Handbooks. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73893-8_81

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