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Crossover from the Ultracold to the Quasiclassical Regime in State-Selected Photodissociation

S. S. Kondov, C.-H. Lee, M. McDonald, B. H. McGuyer, I. Majewska, R. Moszynski, and T. Zelevinsky
Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 143401 – Published 2 October 2018
Physics logo See Synopsis: The Quantum and Classical Sides of a Chemical Reaction

Abstract

Processes that break molecular bonds are typically observed with molecules occupying a mixture of quantum states and successfully described with quasiclassical models, while a few studies have explored the distinctly quantum mechanical low-energy regime. Here, we use photodissociation of diatomic strontium molecules to demonstrate the crossover from the ultracold, quantum regime where photofragment angular distributions strongly depend on the kinetic energy to the quasiclassical regime. Using time-of-flight imaging for photodissociation channels with millikelvin reaction barriers, we explore photofragment energies in the 0.1–300 mK range experimentally and up to 3 K theoretically, and discuss the energy scale at which the crossover occurs. We find that the effects of quantum statistics can persist to high photodissociation energies.

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  • Received 22 May 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.143401

© 2018 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Atomic, Molecular & Optical

Synopsis

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The Quantum and Classical Sides of a Chemical Reaction

Published 2 October 2018

Experiments track a simple molecule dissociating to find when the reaction can be described with a quantum model and when a semiclassical one will do.

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Authors & Affiliations

S. S. Kondov1, C.-H. Lee1, M. McDonald1,*, B. H. McGuyer1,†, I. Majewska2, R. Moszynski2, and T. Zelevinsky1,‡

  • 1Department of Physics, Columbia University, 538 West 120th Street, New York, New York 10027-5255, USA
  • 2Quantum Chemistry Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, University of Warsaw, Pasteura 1, 02-093 Warsaw, Poland

  • *Present address: Department of Physics, University of Chicago, 929 East 57th Street GCIS ESB11, Chicago, IL 60637, USA.
  • Present address: Facebook, Inc., 1 Hacker Way, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA.
  • tanya.zelevinsky@columbia.edu

See Also

Experimental and theoretical investigation of the crossover from the ultracold to the quasiclassical regime of photodissociation

I. Majewska, S. S. Kondov, C.-H. Lee, M. McDonald, B. H. McGuyer, R. Moszynski, and T. Zelevinsky
Phys. Rev. A 98, 043404 (2018)

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Issue

Vol. 121, Iss. 14 — 5 October 2018

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