• DOI:10.1126/science.abe7370
• Corpus ID: 221739073

Resonant collisional shielding of reactive molecules using electric fields

@article{Matsuda2020ResonantCS,
  title={Resonant collisional shielding of reactive molecules using electric fields},
  author={Kyle Matsuda and Luigi De Marco and Jun-Ru Li and William G. Tobias and Giacomo Valtolina and Goulven Qu{\'e}m{\'e}ner and Jun Ye},
  journal={Science},
  year={2020},
  volume={370},
  pages={1324 - 1327}
}

• K. Matsuda, L. De Marco, +4 authors Jun Ye
• Published 16 September 2020
• Physics, Chemistry
• Science

Electric field shielding of ultracold molecules Because reactive collisions limit the lifetime of ultracold molecular ensembles, controlling chemical reactivity at ultralow temperatures has been a long-standing goal. Using large electric fields that trigger resonant dipolar interactions between potassium-rubidium molecules trapped in a quasi–two-dimensional geometry, Matsuda et al. report suppression of the reactive loss rate in the vicinity of the dipolar-mediated resonances by up to an order of magnitude below the background value. The proposed shielding mechanism is general and is expected to be effective in three-dimensional geometry. It could also be used for creating long-lived quantum molecular gases of other polar molecules under strong electric fields. Science, this issue p. 1324 Strong external electric fields near dipolar-mediated resonances can suppress reactive losses in ultracold quasi-2D KRb gas. Full control of molecular interactions, including reactive losses, would open new frontiers in quantum science. We demonstrate extreme tunability of ultracold chemical reaction rates by inducing resonant dipolar interactions by means of an external electric field. We prepared fermionic potassium-rubidium molecules in their first excited rotational state and observed a modulation of the chemical reaction rate by three orders of magnitude as we tuned the electric field strength by a few percent across resonance. In a quasi–two-dimensional geometry, we accurately determined the contributions from the three dominant angular momentum projections of the collisions. Using the resonant features, we shielded the molecules from loss and suppressed the reaction rate by an order of magnitude below the background value, thereby realizing a long-lived sample of polar molecules in large electric fields.