Control of Ultracold Photodissociation with Magnetic Fields

Abstract

Photodissociation of a molecule produces a spatial distribution of photofragments determined by the molecular structure and the characteristics of the dissociating light. Performing this basic chemical reaction at ultracold temperatures allows its quantum mechanical features to dominate. In this regime, weak applied fields can be used to control the reaction. Here, we photodissociate ultracold diatomic strontium in magnetic fields below 10 G and observe striking changes in photofragment angular distributions. The observations are in excellent qualitative agreement with a multichannel quantum chemistry model that includes nonadiabatic effects and predicts strong mixing of partial waves in the photofragment energy continuum. The experiment is enabled by precise quantum-state control of the molecules.

arXiv comment8 pages, 3 figures

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Cited by in corpus (6)

• Quantum control of molecular rotation
• Magnetic quantum number resolved state-to-state chemistry
• Crossover from the Ultracold to the Quasiclassical Regime in State-Selected Photodissociation
• Experimental and Theoretical Investigation of the Crossover from the Ultracold to the Quasiclassical Regime of Photodissociation
• Ab initio electronic structure of the Sr${}_2^{+}$ molecular ion
• Optimal Bounds on State Transfer Under Quantum Channels with Application to Spin System Engineering