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Physics Today

Polar molecules in the quantum regime

Deborah Jin, Jun Ye

Published May 1, 2011• 45 citations
Publisher

Abstract

With molecular gases so cold that collisions must be described quantum mechanically, researchers are studying chemical reactions as they’ve never been seen before.
DOI
10.1063/1.3592002

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Collisions of molecules in a thermal gas are difficult to control. Thermal motion randomizes molecular encounters and diminishes the effects of external radiation or static electromagnetic fields on intermolecular interactions. The effects of the thermal motion can be reduced by cooling molecular gases to low temperatures. At temperatures near or below 1 K, the collision energy of molecules becomes less significant than perturbations due to external fields. At the same time, inelastic scattering and chemical reactions may be very efficient in low-temperature molecular gases. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate that collisions of molecules at temperatures below 1 K can be manipulated by external electromagnetic fields and to discuss possible applications of cold controlled chemistry. The discussion focuses on molecular interactions at cold (0.001-2 K) and ultracold (<0.001 K) temperatures and is based on both recent theoretical and experimental work. The article concludes with a summary of current challenges for theory and experiment in the research of cold molecules and cold chemistry.