Making new materials accessible for high-mass matter-wave interference

Recent experiments have established metal nanoparticles as a promising platform for matter-wave interference with scalable masses. This opens up an entire class of materials with the potential to be explored in quantum superposition experiments. New materials require innovative methods for beam formation, coherent beam splitters and efficient detectors. Here we present our progress in the generation of intense, deep UV laser light at < 230 nm via intra-cavity SHG, which will enable photoionization beamsplitters for metals with high ionization energies. We also report on the creation of slow particle beams via aerodynamic lensing, extending the range of our experiments towards quantum interference with larger masses. The high phase stability already observed in current interferometry experiments, persisting in the transition from quantum wave to classical ray optics, lays the foundation for precision sensing applications which will become available to this novel material class.