Constructive Quantum Interference in a Photo-Chemical Reaction of $^{87}$Rb Bose Einstein Condensate

TL;DR

This paper presents a theoretical study demonstrating how to achieve constructive quantum interference in a photo-chemical reaction of a $^{87}$Rb Bose Einstein Condensate by altering the reactive scattering channel, enabling coherent control.

Contribution

It introduces a method to induce constructive interference in ultracold photo-chemical reactions using spin superpositions created by radio frequency coupling.

Findings

Constructive interference can be achieved by changing the reactive scattering channel.

Interference control is based on the spin part of the wavefunction.

The approach is applicable to a wide range of ultracold chemical reactions.

Abstract

Interferences emerge when multiple pathways coexist together leading towards the same result. A Recent study by Blasing and coworkers [PRL 121(7):073202] showed that in a photo-association reaction of Raman dressed spin orbit coupled $^{87}$Rb Bose Einstein Condensate when the reactant spin state is prepared in a coherent superposition of multiple bare spin states it leads to a destructive interference between reaction pathways. Here we report a theoretical study for a reaction scheme which leads to constructive quantum interference. This is achieved by changing the reactive scattering channel in the reaction. As the origin of coherent control comes from the spin part of the wavefunction it is sufficient to use radio frequency coupling to achieve the superposition state. Our results show that interferences can be used as a resource for the coherent control of photo-chemical reactions. The approach is general and can be employed to study a wide spectra of chemical reactions in the ultracold regime.