Quantum reflection and interference of matter waves from periodically doped surfaces

Abstract

We show that periodically doped, flat surfaces can act as reflective diffraction gratings for atomic and molecular matter waves. The diffraction element is realized by exploiting that charged dopants locally suppress quantum reflection from the Casimir-Polder potential. We present a general quantum scattering theory for reflection off periodically charged surfaces and discuss the requirements for the observation of multiple diffraction peaks.