American Physical Society, Physical Review A, 5(79), 2009
DOI: 10.1103/physreva.79.053823
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In the Poisson-spot experiment, waves emanating from a source are blocked by a circular obstacle. Due to their positive on-axis interference an image of the source the Poisson spot is observed within the geometrical shadow of the obstacle. In this paper we report the observation of Poisson’s spot using a beam of neutral deuterium molecules. The wavelength independence and the weak constraints on angular alignment and position of the circular obstacle make Poisson’s spot a promising candidate for applications ranging from the study of large molecule diffraction to patterning with molecules.