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Institute for Theoretical Physics
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Another subject the group works on is located in the field of atom and molecule optics. In a collaboration with the experimental group of Prof. J.P.Toennies at the Max-Planck-Institut für Strömungsforschung in Göttingen, the diffraction of ground state atoms (He, Ne, etc.) as well as metastable atoms (He*, Ne*) is investigated. Furthermore, the diffraction of very weakly bound helium clusters is investigated.
The theoretical formalism, which has been developed in our group, and which is based on quantum mechanical scattering theory, allows to measure the interaction (van der Waals potential) between the atom beam and the material of the transmission grating.
Moreover, a theoretical description has been obtained for the diffraction of very weakly bound molecules, such as the helim dimer. This allows to determine certain features of the molecular bound state from experimental diffraction patterns.