Polarizability measurements of a molecule via a near-field matter-wave interferometer

We present a method for measuring the scalar polarizability of molecules by means of near-field matter-wave interferometry. This technique is applicable to a wide range of complex neutral molecules. A key feature of our experiment is the combination of good transmission and high spatial resolution, gained by imprinting a submicrometer spatial modulation onto a wide molecular beam. Our method significantly improves the measurement sensitivity of the polarizability-dependent shifts. We have successfully performed measurements on fullerenes and report the polarizability to be $\alpha =88.9\pm 0.9\pm 5.1{\mathrm{\AA }}^3$ for ${\mathrm{C}}_{60}$ and $\alpha =108.5\pm 2.0\pm 6.2{\mathrm{\AA }}^3$ for ${\mathrm{C}}_{70}$.