Issue 9, 2020

Probing ultracold chemistry using ion spectrometry

Abstract

Rapid progress in atomic, molecular, and optical (AMO) physics techniques enabled the creation of ultracold samples of molecular species and opened opportunities to explore chemistry in the ultralow temperature regime. In particular, both the external and internal quantum degrees of freedom of the reactant atoms and molecules are controlled, allowing studies that explored the role of the long-range potential in ultracold reactions. The kinetics of these reactions have typically been determined using the loss of reactants as proxies. To extend such studies into the short-range, we developed an experimental apparatus that combines the production of quantum-state-selected ultracold KRb molecules with ion mass and kinetic energy spectrometry, and directly observed KRb + KRb reaction intermediates and products [M.-G. Hu and Y. Liu, et al., Science, 2019, 366, 1111]. Here, we present the apparatus in detail. For future studies that aim for detecting the quantum states of the reaction products, we demonstrate a photodissociation based scheme to calibrate the ion kinetic energy spectrometer at low energies.

Graphical abstract: Probing ultracold chemistry using ion spectrometry

Article information

Article type
Perspective
Submitted
29 Dec 2019
Accepted
13 Feb 2020
First published
14 Feb 2020

Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2020,22, 4861-4874

Author version available

Probing ultracold chemistry using ion spectrometry

Y. Liu, D. D. Grimes, M. Hu and K. Ni, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2020, 22, 4861 DOI: 10.1039/C9CP07015J

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements