TY - JOUR
AU - Kyle Matsuda
AU - Luigi De Marco
AU - Jun-Ru Li
AU - William Tobias
AU - Giacomo Valtolina
AU - Goulven Quéméner
AU - Jun Ye
AB - Full control of molecular interactions, including reactive losses, would open new frontiers in
quantum science. We demonstrate extreme tunability of ultracold chemical reaction rates
by inducing resonant dipolar interactions by means of an external electric field. We prepared
fermionic potassium-rubidium molecules in their first excited rotational state and observed
a modulation of the chemical reaction rate by three orders of magnitude as we tuned the electric
field strength by a few percent across resonance. In a quasi–two-dimensional geometry, we
accurately determined the contributions from the three dominant angular momentum projections of the
collisions. Using the resonant features, we shielded the molecules from loss and suppressed the reaction rate
by an order of magnitude below the background value, thereby realizing a long-lived sample of polar
molecules in large electric fields.
BT - Science
DA - 2020-12
DO - 10.1126/science.abe7370
IS - 6522
N2 - Full control of molecular interactions, including reactive losses, would open new frontiers in
quantum science. We demonstrate extreme tunability of ultracold chemical reaction rates
by inducing resonant dipolar interactions by means of an external electric field. We prepared
fermionic potassium-rubidium molecules in their first excited rotational state and observed
a modulation of the chemical reaction rate by three orders of magnitude as we tuned the electric
field strength by a few percent across resonance. In a quasi–two-dimensional geometry, we
accurately determined the contributions from the three dominant angular momentum projections of the
collisions. Using the resonant features, we shielded the molecules from loss and suppressed the reaction rate
by an order of magnitude below the background value, thereby realizing a long-lived sample of polar
molecules in large electric fields.
PY - 2020
SE - 1324
EP - 1324
T2 - Science
TI - Resonant collisional shielding of reactive molecules using electric fields
UR - https://science.sciencemag.org/content/370/6522/1324
VL - 370
ER -