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Chemical reactions of ultracold alkali-metal dimers in the lowest-energy 3Σ state

Michał Tomza, Kirk W. Madison, Robert Moszynski, and Roman V. Krems
Phys. Rev. A 88, 050701(R) – Published 21 November 2013

Abstract

We show that the interaction of polar alkali-metal dimers in the quintet spin state leads to the formation of a deeply bound reaction complex. The reaction complex can decompose adiabatically into homonuclear alkali-metal dimers (for all molecules except KRb) and into alkali-metal trimers (for all molecules). We show that there are no barriers for these chemical reactions. This means that all alkali-metal dimers in the a3Σ+ state are chemically unstable at ultracold temperature, and the use of an optical lattice to segregate the molecules and suppress losses may be necessary. In addition, we calculate the minimum-energy path for the chemical reactions of alkali-metal hydrides. We find that the reaction of two molecules is accelerated by a strong attraction between the alkali-metal atoms, leading to a barrierless process that produces hydrogen atoms with large kinetic energy. We discuss the unique features of the chemical reactions of ultracold alkali-metal dimers in the a3Σ+ electronic state.

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  • Received 22 August 2013

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.88.050701

©2013 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Michał Tomza1,2, Kirk W. Madison3, Robert Moszynski2, and Roman V. Krems1

  • 1Department of Chemistry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V6T 1Z1
  • 2Faculty of Chemistry, University of Warsaw, Pasteura 1, 02-093 Warsaw, Poland
  • 3Department of Physics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V6T 1Z1

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Vol. 88, Iss. 5 — November 2013

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