Production of cold formaldehyde molecules for study and control of chemical reaction dynamics with hydroxyl radicals

Abstract

We propose a method for controlling a class of low temperature chemical reactions. Specifically, we show the hydrogen abstraction channel in the reaction of formaldehyde (H${}_2$CO) and the hydroxyl radical (OH) can be controlled through either the molecular state or an external electric field. We also outline experiments for investigating and demonstrating control over this important reaction. To this end, we report the first Stark deceleration of the H${}_2$CO molecule. We have decelerated a molecular beam of H${}_2$CO essentially to rest, producing cold molecule packets at a temperature of 100 mK with a few million molecules in the packet at a density of $\sim 10^6$ cm${}^{-3}$.

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Cited by in corpus (45)

• Feshbach Resonances in Ultracold Gases
• Cold and Ultracold Molecules: Science, Technology, and Applications
• Manipulation of Molecules with Electromagnetic Fields
• Sisyphus Cooling of Electrically Trapped Polyatomic Molecules
• Magneto-Optical Trap for Polar Molecules
• Formation and interactions of cold and ultracold molecules: new challenges for interdisciplinary physics
• Laser radiation pressure slowing of a molecular beam
• Magneto-electrostatic trapping of ground state OH molecules
• Optoelectrical cooling of polar molecules to sub-millikelvin temperatures
• Cavity-enhanced direct frequency comb spectroscopy
• Calculations of static dipole polarizabilities of alkali dimers. Prospects for alignment of ultracold molecules
• Inelastic collisions of ultra-cold heteronuclear molecules in an optical trap
• Low-energy molecular collisions in a permanent magnetic trap
• Simultaneous Hydrogenation and UV-photolysis Experiments of NO in CO-rich Interstellar Ice Analogues; linking HNCO, OCN-, NH2CHO and NH2OH
• Strong dependence of ultracold chemical rates on electric dipole moments
• Ultracold polar molecules near quantum degeneracy
• A Bright, Slow Cryogenic Molecular Beam Source for Free Radicals
• Alternating Gradient Focusing and Deceleration of Polar Molecules
• Prospects for the cavity-assisted laser cooling of molecules
• A new method for producing ultracold molecular ions
• Production of optically trapped ${}^{87}$RbCs Feshbach molecules
• Quantum theory of chemical reactions in the presence of electromagnetic fields
• Quasi-two dimensional dipolar scattering
• Cold Reactions of Alkali and Water Clusters inside Helium Nanodroplets
• Sympathetic cooling of polyatomic molecules with S-state atoms in a magnetic trap
• Stark deceleration of OH radicals in low-field-seeking and high-field-seeking quantum states
• Trapping molecular ions formed via photo-associative ionization of ultracold atoms
• Loss of molecules in magneto-electrostatic traps due to nonadiabatic transitions
• Stark deceleration of CaF molecules in strong- and weak-field seeking states
• Cold SO_2 molecules by Stark deceleration
• High-energy-resolution molecular beams for cold collision studies
• A supersonic beam of cold lithium hydride molecules
• Transport of polar molecules by an alternating gradient guide
• Deceleration of a supersonic beam of SrF molecules to 120 m/s
• Engineering excited-state interactions at ultracold temperatures
• Spectroscopy of formaldehyde in the 30140-30790cm^-1 range
• Cold collisions of polyatomic molecular radicals with S-state atoms in a magnetic field: An ab initio study of He + CH2(X) collisions
• Conformer-selection by matter-wave interference
• Advanced switching schemes in a Stark decelerator
• Deceleration of continuous molecular beams
• Interisotope effects in optimal dual-isotope loading into a shallow optical trap
• Quantum Defect Theory description of weakly bound levels and Feshbach resonances in LiRb
• Exact two-body solutions and Quantum defect theory of two dimensional dipolar quantum gas
• Reactions between cold methyl halide molecules and alkali-metal atoms
• Optical Stark decelerator for cw molecular beam with a quasi-cw semi-Gaussian laser beam