Resonant collisional shielding of reactive molecules using electric fields
Abstract
Because reactive collisions limit the lifetime of ultracold molecular ensembles, controlling chemical reactivity at ultralow temperatures has been a long-standing goal. Using large electric fields that trigger resonant dipolar interactions between potassium-rubidium molecules trapped in a quasi–two-dimensional geometry, Matsuda et al. report suppression of the reactive loss rate in the vicinity of the dipolar-mediated resonances by up to an order of magnitude below the background value. The proposed shielding mechanism is general and is expected to be effective in three-dimensional geometry. It could also be used for creating long-lived quantum molecular gases of other polar molecules under strong electric fields.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Dec 11, 2020
- Source ID
- 10.1126/science.abe7370
Entities
People
- Giacomo Valtolina
- Goulven Quéméner
- Jun Ye
- Junru Li
- Kyle Matsuda
- Luigi De Marco
- William Tobias
Organizations
- Agence Nationale de la Recherche
- Army Research Office
- National Institute of Standards and Technology
- National Science Foundation
- Paris-Saclay University
- University of Colorado