Controlling few-body reaction pathways using a Feshbach resonance
Abstract Gaining control over chemical reactions at the quantum level is a central goal of cold and ultracold chemistry. Here we demonstrate a method for coherently steering the reaction flux across different product spin channels for a three-body recombination process in a cloud of trapped cold atoms. We use a magnetically tunable Feshbach resonance to admix, in a controlled way, a specific spin state to the reacting collision complex. This allows us to control the reaction flux into the admixed spin channel, which can be used to alter the reaction products. We also investigate the influence of an Efimov resonance on the reaction dynamics, observing a global enhancement of three-body recombination without favouring particular reaction channels. Our control scheme can be extended to other reaction processes and could be combined with other methods, such as quantum interference of reaction paths, to achieve further tuning capabilities of few-body reactions.
Authors
- Jose D'Incao
- Jing-Lun Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3096-6063)
- Johannes Hecker Denschlag (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1984-4994)
- E. Tiemann (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4690-7738)
- Paul S. Julienne (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5494-1442)
- Markus Deiß (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-8025-910X)
- Shinsuke Haze (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1696-3947)
- Dominik Dorer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6988-7506)
Institutions
- Leibniz University Hannover (DE)
- Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics (US)
- University of Colorado Boulder (US)
- Universität Ulm (DE)
- Center for Integrated Quantum Science and Technology (DE)
- Joint Quantum Institute (US)
- University of Maryland, College Park (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Physics
- Published
- 2025-01-09
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-024-02726-3
- Citations
- 6
- Primary Topic
- Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 7.48
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- Baden-Württemberg Stiftung
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
- Israel Science Foundation
- Universität Ulm
- Japan Science and Technology Agency
- Moonshot Research and Development Program