High contrast interference with C60 and C70

Abstract

We report on fullerene interference experiments using the two abundant fullerenes C${}_{60}$ and C${}_{70}$. Compared to previous experiments the detected molecular flux has been improved by about an order of magnitude. This now permits either a better collimation or a velocity selection. In both cases, demonstrated here, we see a good improvement of the interference contrast for both fullerene species. In the case of C${}_{60}$ the interference minima go down to the background level — indicating almost perfect coherence.