Simultaneous Zeeman deceleration of polyatomic free radical with lithium atoms
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Front. Phys. 16(1), 12504 (2021)
Research article Simultaneous Zeeman deceleration of polyatomic free radical with lithium atoms Yang Liu† , Le Luo‡ School of Physics and Astronomy, Sun Yat-Sen University, Zhuhai 519082, China E-mail: † [email protected], ‡ [email protected] Received July 17, 2020; accepted September 12, 2020
Chemistry in the ultracold regime enables fully quantum-controlled interactions between atoms and molecules, leading to the discovery of the hidden mechanisms in chemical reactions which are usually curtained by thermal averaging in the high temperature. Recently a couple of diatomic molecules have been cooled to ultracold regime based on laser cooling techniques, but the chemistry associated with these simple molecules is highly limited. In comparison, free radicals play a major role in many important chemical reactions, but yet to be cooled to submillikelvin temperature. Here we propose a novel method of decelerating CH3 , the simplest polyatomic free radical, with lithium atoms simultaneously by travelling wave magnetic decelerator. This scheme paves the way towards co-trapping CH3 and lithium, so that sympathetical cooling can be used to preparing ultracold free radical sample. Keywords travelling wave magnetic decelerator, simultaneous deceleration, methyl radical
1 Introduction The fields of physical chemistry or chemical physics have seen astonishing strides towards the creation of cold and ultracold molecules in electronic and rovibrational ground state in recent two decades. Such researches have fostered a wealth of interdisciplinary explorations, such as many-body quantum physics and chemistry [1, 2], quantum computation [3, 4], quantum simulation [5–7], cold and ultracold chemistry [8–13], and precision measurement [14–20]. Although a couple of diatomic molecules have already been successfully cooled to ultracold regime, these simple molecules are lack of potential to explore rich chemistry in a general sense. In comparison, free radicals involving in many crucial chemical reactions, but yet to be cooled to submillikelvin temperature. For example, methyl radical CH3 , the simplest organic polyatomic radical, is one of the most important and fundamental intermediates in hydrocarbon chemistry. It plays a key role in various reactions including combustion, atmospheric and interstellar chemistry. Creating ultracold CH3 would help to understand the quantum mechanisms related to many elementary reactions. For example, at very low temperature, two types of reactions could happen, one is barrierless reaction CH3 + OH −→ CH2 O + H2 , and the other is tunnelling process, CH3 + H2 −→ CH4 + H [21, 22]. However, their reaction rate and branching ratio are still ∗ arXiv:
2009.05829. This article can also be found at http://journal.hep.com.cn/fop/EN/10.1007/s11467-0201003-3.
ambiguous [23]. Understanding these reactions would give a thrust to the advancement of cold chemistry. CH3 molecule has an unpaired electron, and has a linear Zeeman shift in strong magnetic fields because
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