Fast Hydrogen Atom Diffraction through Monocrystalline Graphene

Guichard, Pierre;Dochain, Arnaud;Marion, Raphaël;de Crombrugghe de Picquendaele, Pauline;Urbain, Xavier;et.al.
(2025) Physical Review Letters — Vol. 135, n° 26, p. 263403-263401 (2025)

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Authors
  • Guichard, Pierreorcid-logoUniversité de Strasbourg, CNRS, Institut de Physique et Chimie des Mat´eriaux de Strasbourg, UMR 7504, 67000 Strasbourg, France
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  • Dochain, ArnaudUCLouvain
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  • Marion, Raphaëlorcid-logoUCL - Royal Observatory of Belgium (ROB-ORB), B-1180 Brussels, Belgium
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  • de Crombrugghe de Picquendaele, PaulineInstitute of Condensed Matter and Nanosciences, Universit´e Catholique de Louvain, B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
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  • Hackens, Benoîtorcid-logoUCLouvain
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  • Urbain, Xavierorcid-logoUCLouvain
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Abstract
We report fast atom diffraction through single-layer graphene using hydrogen atoms at kinetic energies from 150 to 1200 eV. High-resolution images reveal overlapping hexagonal patterns from coexisting monocrystalline domains. Time-of-flight tagging confirms negligible energy loss, making the method suitable for matter-wave interferometry. The diffraction is well described by the eikonal approximation,with accurate modeling requiring the full 3D interaction potential from density functional theory. Simpler models fail to reproduce the data, highlighting the exceptional sensitivity of diffraction patterns to atomsurface interactions and their potential for spectroscopic applications.
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Guichard, P., Dochain, A., Marion, R., de Crombrugghe de Picquendaele, P., Lejeune, N., Hackens, B., Hervieux, P.-A., & Urbain, X. (2025). Fast Hydrogen Atom Diffraction through Monocrystalline Graphene. Physical Review Letters, 135(26), 263403-263401. https://doi.org/10.1103/wdx6-mrvm (Original work published 2025)