When diffraction rules the stereodynamics of rotationally inelastic collisions

Abstract

Following upon our recent work on vector correlations in the Ar-NO collisions [PCCP 12, 1038 (2010)], we compare model results with close-coupling calculations for a range of channels and collision energies for the He-NO system. The striking agreement between the model and exact polarization moments indicates that the stereodynamics of rotationally inelastic atom-molecule collisions at thermal energies is governed by diffraction of matter waves from a two-dimensional repulsive core of the atom-molecule potential. Furthermore, the model polarization moments characterizing the He-NO, He-O${}_2$, He-OH, and He-CaH stereodynamics are found to coalesce into a single, distinctive pattern, which can serve as a "fingerprint" to identify diffraction-driven stereodynamics in future work.

4 pages, 3 figures

References in corpus (3)

• An analytic model of rotationally inelastic collisions of polar molecules in electric fields
• Collisions of paramagnetic molecules in magnetic fields: an analytic model based on Fraunhofer diffraction of matter waves
• The effect of a nonresonant radiative field on low-energy rotationally inelastic ${\text{Na}}^{+}+{\text{N}}_2$ collisions

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Multiple scattering of matter waves: an analytic model of the refractive index for atomic and molecular gases