Amazing (ultra cool) stuff!
"... By cooling molecules of potassium and rubidium down to a fraction of a degree above absolute zero, they reduced the number of possible reaction outcomes to just 57. They then probed all these outcomes down to the level of individual quantum states, paving the way for a better understanding of chemistry. ...
“For many physical chemists it’s been a long-term dream to be able to follow a chemical reaction from start to finish at the quantum state resolved level,” ..."
“For many physical chemists it’s been a long-term dream to be able to follow a chemical reaction from start to finish at the quantum state resolved level,” ..."
"... Reactions that occur at ultra low temperatures provide an ideal testing ground for quantum chemistry and scattering theories, because they can be experimentally studied with unprecedented control, yet display dynamics that are highly complex. Here we report the full product state distribution for the reaction 2KRb → K2 + Rb2. Ultracold preparation of the reactants allows us complete control over their initial quantum degrees of freedom, whereas state-resolved, coincident detection of both products enables the probability of scattering into each of the 57 allowed rotational state-pairs to be measured. Our results show an overall agreement with a state-counting model based on statistical theory4,5,6, but also reveal several deviating state-pairs. ..."
Here is the link to the underlying research article:
Precision test of statistical dynamics with state-to-state ultracold chemistry (no public access, but the above Physics World article provides access to the PDF)
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