Direct Observation of X-ray Double-Slit Interference in Momentum Space

Abstract

Young's double-slit experiment is conventionally deemed a spatial phenomenon emerging from free-space transport. In this Letter, we invert this perspective to demonstrate that Young's interference can be accessed directly as a pure momentum-space observable. Using a perfect-crystal diffraction to project the field's reciprocal-space profile immediately downstream of the aperture, we resolve the complete hard X-ray double-slit fringe structure without any propagation arm, focusing optics, or imaging detector. This direct capture of the field's invariant momentum marginal establishes a compact, lensless, and propagation-free approach to coherence diagnostics, proving that the fundamental physics of wave interference can be detached from real-space propagation.