Direct observation of bimolecular reactions of ultracold KRb molecules

Abstract

Femtochemistry techniques have been instrumental in accessing the short time scales necessary to probe transient intermediates in chemical reactions. Here we take the contrasting approach of prolonging the lifetime of an intermediate by preparing reactant molecules in their lowest ro-vibronic quantum state at ultralow temperatures, thereby drastically reducing the number of exit channels accessible upon their mutual collision. Using ionization spectroscopy and velocity-map imaging of a trapped gas of potassium-rubidium molecules at a temperature of 500~nK, we directly observe reactants, intermediates, and products of the reaction ${}^{40}$K${}^{87}$Rb + ${}^{40}$K${}^{87}$Rb $\to$ K${}_2$Rb${}_2^{\ast }$ $\to$ K${}_2$ + Rb${}_2$. Beyond observation of a long-lived energy-rich intermediate complex, this technique opens the door to further studies of quantum-state resolved reaction dynamics in the ultracold regime.

arXiv comment4 figures in main, 4 figures in SM, 2 table in SM

References in corpus (17)

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• A Fermi Degenerate Gas of Polar Molecules
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• Observation of different reactivities of para- and ortho-water towards cold diazenylium ions
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• Collisions of ultracold ^{23}Na^{87}Rb molecules with controlled chemical reactivities
• Sticky collisions of ultracold RbCs molecules
• Universal model for exoergic bimolecular reactions and inelastic processes
• A quasiclassical method for calculating the density of states of ultracold collision complexes
• Synthesis of mixed hypermetallic oxide BaOCa${}^{+}$ from laser-cooled reagents in an atom-ion hybrid trap
• A single hollow beam optical trap for cold atoms
• Structure and thermochemistry of K${}_2$Rb, KRb${}_2$ and K${}_2$Rb${}_2$
• Feshbach molecule formation in a Bose-Fermi mixture
• Reaction kinetics of ultracold molecule-molecule collisions

Cited by in corpus (107)

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• A Feshbach resonance in collisions between ultracold ground state molecules
• Quantum control of molecules for fundamental physics
• Evidence for association of triatomic molecule in ultracold ${}^{23}$Na${}^{40}$K and ${}^{40}$K mixture
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• Dynamical generation of spin squeezing in ultra-cold dipolar molecules
• Optical shielding of destructive chemical reactions between ultracold ground-state NaRb molecules
• Magnetic Feshbach resonances in collisions of ${}^{23}$Na${}^{40}$K with ${}^{40}$K
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• Competing quantum phases of hard-core boson with tilted dipole-dipole interaction
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• Collisional losses of ultracold molecules due to intermediate complex formation
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• Probing ultracold chemistry using ion spectrometry
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• Mapping partial wave dynamics in scattering resonances by rotational de-excitation collisions
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• Observation of resonant dipolar collisions in ultracold ${}^{23}$Na${}^{87}$Rb rotational mixtures
• Ultralong-range Rydberg bi-molecules
• Entanglement via rotational blockade of MgF molecules in a magic potential
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• Simulation of Cryogenic Buffer Gas Beams
• Transition strength measurements to guide magic wavelength selection in optically trapped molecules
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• Signatures of Non-universal Quantum Dynamics of Ultracold Chemical Reactions of Polar Alkali-dimer Molecules with Alkali-metal Atoms: Li(${}^2$S) +NaLi($a^3{\Sigma }^{+}$) $\to$ Na(${}^2$S) + Li${}_2$($a^3{\Sigma }_u^{+}$)
• Efficient Pathway to NaCs Ground State Molecules
• Enhanced quantum state transfer via feedforward cancellation of optical phase noise
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• Rydberg Macrodimers: Diatomic molecules on the micrometer scale
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• Enhancing reactivity of SiO${}^{+}$ ions by controlled excitation to extreme rotational states
• Strong angular-momentum mixing in ultracold atom-ion excitation-exchange
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• Optical Two-dimensional Coherent Spectroscopy of Cold Atoms
• Anisotropic Polarizability of Ultracold Ground-state ${}^{23}$Na${}^{87}$Rb Molecules
• Collisions Between Ultracold Atoms and Cold Molecules in a Dual Electrostatic-Magnetic Trap
• Understanding chemical reactions in a quantum degenerate gas of polar molecules via complex formation
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• Van der Waals molecules consisting of a zinc or cadmium atom interacting with an alkali-metal or alkaline-earth-metal atom
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