Nature, Vol.386, No.6621, 150-153, 1997
Measurement of the Wigner-Function of an Ensemble of Helium-Atoms
Beams of atoms can exhibit interference and diffraction phenomena just like waves of light. For a coherent beam of helium atoms in a double-slit experiment, measurements of the quantum-mechanical analogue of the classical phase-space distribution function show that the motion of atoms behaves in a strongly non-classical manner.