Nonadiabatically Driven Quantum Interference Effects in the Ultracold K + KRb → Rb + K<sub>2</sub> Chemical Reaction
The K + KRb → Rb + K<sub>2</sub> chemical reaction is the first ultracold atom-diatom chemical reaction for which experimental results have been reported for temperatures below 1 μK more than a decade ago. The reaction occurs through coupling with an excited electronic state that is accessible even in the ultracold limit. A previous quantum dynamics study, excluding nonadiabatic effects, has reported a rate coefficient that is about 35% below the experimental value. Here, we report the first nonadiabatic quantum dynamics study of this reaction and obtain rate coefficients in better agreement with experiments. Our results show that short-range dynamics mediated by coupling with the excited electronic state introduces quantum interference effects that influence both the state-to-state rate coefficients and the overall reaction rates.
Authors
- N. Balakrishnan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7196-1851)
- Svetlana Kotochigova (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0580-3788)
- Humberto da Silva (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1071-3250)
- Brian K. Kendrick (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1806-9172)
- Hui Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7696-4680)
Institutions
- University of Nevada, Las Vegas (US)
- University of Nevada, Reno (US)
- Los Alamos National Laboratory (US)
- Temple College (US)
- Temple University (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters
- Published
- 2025-06-11
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.5c01083
- Citations
- 6
- Primary Topic
- Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 7.48
Funders
- U.S. Department of Energy
- Division of Physics
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Army Research Office