Abstract
Measuring inelastic rates with partial-wave resolution requires temperatures close to a Kelvin or below, even for the lightest molecule. In a recent experiment, Perreault, Mukherjee, and Zare [Nat. Chem. 10, 561 (2018).] studied collisional relaxation of excited HD molecules in the , state by para- and ortho- at a temperature of about 1 K, extracting the angular distribution of scattered HD in the , state. By state preparation of the HD molecules, control of the angular distribution of scattered HD was demonstrated. Here, we report a first-principles simulation of that experiment which enables us to attribute the main features of the observed angular distribution to a single partial-wave shape resonance. Our results demonstrate important stereodynamical insights that can be gained when numerically exact quantum scattering calculations are combined with experimental results in the few-partial-wave regime.
- Received 29 June 2018
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.113401
© 2018 American Physical Society