Quantum-Logic Detection of Chemical Reactions

Abstract

Studies of chemical reactions by a single pair of atoms in a well defined quantum state constitute a corner stone in quantum chemistry. Yet, the number of demonstrated techniques which enable observation and control of a single chemical reaction is handful. Here we propose and demonstrate a new technique to study chemical reactions between an ultracold neutral atom and a cold ion using quantum logic. We experimentally study the release of hyperfine energy in a reaction between an ultracold rubidium atom and isotopes of singly ionized strontium for which we do not have experimental control. We detect the reaction outcome and measure the reaction rate of the chemistry ion by reading the motional state of a logic ion via quantum logic, in a single shot. Our work opens new avenues and extends the toolbox of studying chemical reactions, with existing experimental tools, for all atomic and molecular ions in which direct laser cooling and state detection are unavailable.

References in corpus (13)

• An ${}^{27}$Al${}^{+}$ quantum-logic clock with systematic uncertainty below $10^{-18}$
• A trapped single ion inside a Bose-Einstein condensate
• Power-Law Distributions for a Trapped Ion Interacting with a Classical Buffer Gas
• Coherent laser spectroscopy of highly charged ions using quantum logic
• Controlling chemical reactions of a single particle
• Cold heteronuclear atom-ion collisions
• Fluorescence during Doppler cooling of a single trapped atom
• Observation of Feshbach resonances between a single ion and ultracold atoms
• Cold interactions between an Yb${}^{+}$ ion and a Li atom: Prospects for sympathetic cooling, radiative association, and Feshbach resonances
• Kinetics of a single trapped ion in an ultracold buffer gas
• State-selective coherent motional excitation as a new approach for the manipulation, spectroscopy and state-to-state chemistry of single molecular ions
• Vibronic spectroscopy of sympathetically cooled CaH${}^{+}$
• Photon-mediated charge-exchange reactions between 39K atoms and 40Ca+ ions in a hybrid trap

Cited by in corpus (11)

• Cold trapped molecular ions and hybrid platforms for ions and neutral particles
• Optical tweezers throw and catch single atoms
• Observation of trap-assisted formation of atom-ion bound states
• Trap-assisted complexes in cold atom-ion collisions
• Ultracold ion-atom experiments: cooling, chemistry, and quantum effects
• Ab initio potential energy curves, scattering lengths, and rovibrational levels of the He${}_2^{+}$ molecular ion in excited electronic states
• Quantum control of ion-atom collisions beyond the ultracold regime
• Cold hybrid electrical-optical ion trap
• Phonon-mediated quantum gates in trapped ions coupled to an ultracold atomic gas
• Quantum suppression of cold reactions far from the s-wave energy limit
• Ultracold collisions of a neutral atom with a trapped ion in 1D