Coherent Control of Reactive Scattering

Abstract

Coherent control of bimolecular reactions is demonstrated for 3D atom-diatom reactive scattering. In particular, a superposition of initial degenerate $(\mathrm{vjk})$ diatomic states is used to control reactive integral and differential cross sections in $\mathrm{D}+{\mathrm{H}}_{2}(\mathrm{vjk})\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\mathrm{H}+\mathrm{HD}$, where $v$ and $j$ are the vibrational and rotational quantum numbers of a diatom and $k$ is the projection quantum number of the diatom angular momentum onto the initial relative translational velocity vector. Control over the ratio of reactive to nonreactive scattering is extensive.