Details
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 502-507 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | Nature physics |
| Volume | 7 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| Publication status | Published - 20 Mar 2011 |
Abstract
Molecular collisions in the quantum regime represent a new opportunity to explore chemical reactions. Recently, atom-exchangereactions were observed in a trapped ultracold gas of KRb molecules. In an external electric field, these polar molecules can easily be oriented and the exothermic and barrierless bimolecular reactions, KRb+KRb → K 2 +Rb 2 , occur at a rate that rises steeply with increasing dipole moment. Here we demonstrate the suppression of the bimolecular chemical reaction rate by nearly two orders of magnitude when we use an optical lattice trap to confine the fermionic polar molecules in a quasi-two-dimensional, pancake-like geometry, with the dipoles oriented along the tight confinement direction. With the combination of sufficiently tight confinement and Fermi statistics of the molecules, two polar molecules can approach each other only in a 'side-by-side' collision under repulsive dipoleg-dipole interactions. The suppression of chemical reactions is a prerequisite for the realization of new molecule-based quantum systems.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Physics and Astronomy(all)
- General Physics and Astronomy
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In: Nature physics, Vol. 7, No. 6, 20.03.2011, p. 502-507.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Controlling the quantum stereodynamics of ultracold bimolecular reactions
AU - De Miranda, M. H.G.
AU - Chotia, A.
AU - Neyenhuis, B.
AU - Wang, D.
AU - Quéméner, G.
AU - Ospelkaus, S.
AU - Bohn, J. L.
AU - Ye, J.
AU - Jin, D. S.
N1 - Funding information: We thank P. Julienne, P. Zoller, G. Pupillo and A. Micheli for stimulating discussions and S. Moses for technical contributions. We gratefully acknowledge financial support for this work from NIST, NSF, AFOSR-MURI, DOE and DARPA.
PY - 2011/3/20
Y1 - 2011/3/20
N2 - Molecular collisions in the quantum regime represent a new opportunity to explore chemical reactions. Recently, atom-exchangereactions were observed in a trapped ultracold gas of KRb molecules. In an external electric field, these polar molecules can easily be oriented and the exothermic and barrierless bimolecular reactions, KRb+KRb → K 2 +Rb 2 , occur at a rate that rises steeply with increasing dipole moment. Here we demonstrate the suppression of the bimolecular chemical reaction rate by nearly two orders of magnitude when we use an optical lattice trap to confine the fermionic polar molecules in a quasi-two-dimensional, pancake-like geometry, with the dipoles oriented along the tight confinement direction. With the combination of sufficiently tight confinement and Fermi statistics of the molecules, two polar molecules can approach each other only in a 'side-by-side' collision under repulsive dipoleg-dipole interactions. The suppression of chemical reactions is a prerequisite for the realization of new molecule-based quantum systems.
AB - Molecular collisions in the quantum regime represent a new opportunity to explore chemical reactions. Recently, atom-exchangereactions were observed in a trapped ultracold gas of KRb molecules. In an external electric field, these polar molecules can easily be oriented and the exothermic and barrierless bimolecular reactions, KRb+KRb → K 2 +Rb 2 , occur at a rate that rises steeply with increasing dipole moment. Here we demonstrate the suppression of the bimolecular chemical reaction rate by nearly two orders of magnitude when we use an optical lattice trap to confine the fermionic polar molecules in a quasi-two-dimensional, pancake-like geometry, with the dipoles oriented along the tight confinement direction. With the combination of sufficiently tight confinement and Fermi statistics of the molecules, two polar molecules can approach each other only in a 'side-by-side' collision under repulsive dipoleg-dipole interactions. The suppression of chemical reactions is a prerequisite for the realization of new molecule-based quantum systems.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=79958006811&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/nphys1939
DO - 10.1038/nphys1939
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:79958006811
VL - 7
SP - 502
EP - 507
JO - Nature physics
JF - Nature physics
SN - 1745-2473
IS - 6
ER -