One of the deepest mysteries of quantum mechanics is that an interference pattern is formed even if there is only one particle in the experimental set-up at any given time. They also observed wave-particle duality in carbon-60 molecules that contained one or two atoms of 13C, the heavy isotope of carbon. The molecules had a most probable velocity of 220 metres per second, which corresponds to a de Broglie wavelength of 2.5 picometres (2.5×10 -12 metres) – some 400 times smaller than the diameter of the molecules. The team detected the central maximum and the two first-order diffraction peaks in the interference pattern. The slits in the diffraction grating were 50 nanometres wide and the grating had a period of 100 nanometres. The Vienna team sent a collimated beam of carbon-60 molecules through a slit made of silicon nitride and detected the interference pattern by ionizing the molecules with a laser and then counting the ions. Now Markus Arndt, Anton Zeilinger and co-workers at the University of Vienna in Austria have observed wave-like behaviour in a beam of carbon-60 molecules - which are an order of magnitude larger than any other particles for which quantum interference effects have been observed (M Arndt et al. Wave-particle duality has been observed with electrons, atoms and small molecules.
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