Weinstein Lab

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• Experiments:
• Cold Chemistry
• Ytterbium
• Retired experiments:
• Cold Collisions

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• Department of Physics
• University of Nevada, Reno

Cold reactive collisions

Molecules can undergo 2-body chemical reactions, but such reactions often have an associated energy barrier. According to classical thermodynamics, the consequence of the energy barrier is that as the temperature goes to zero, the reaction rate will go to zero exponentially quickly. But according to quantum mechanics (and the Wigner threshold law) as the temperature goes to zero, the reaction rate goes to a nonzero constant for any exothermic reaction. This is because the reaction can proceed not only by thermal activation over the energy barrier, but also by quantum-mechanical tunneling through it.

We plan to measure tunneling-driven reactions in the gas phase at low temperatures, to gain understanding of the fundamental physics underlying chemical reactions, for future ultracold molecule work, and to open up the prospect of controlling cold chemical reactions with applied fields.

Additionally, we will use optical pumping techniques to investigate controlling chemical reactions with electron spin symmetry.

This material is based upon work supported by: the National Science Foundation under Grant No. PHY 0900190, the National Science Foundation under Grant No. PHY 0903847, and the University of Nevada.

Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Nevada or the National Science Foundation.