Non-adiabatically driven quantum interference effects in the ultracold K + KRb $\longrightarrow$ Rb + K$_{2}$ chemical reaction

TL;DR

This study investigates non-adiabatic quantum interference effects in the ultracold K + KRb reaction, showing that electronic state coupling significantly impacts reaction rates and aligns theoretical predictions with experimental data.

Contribution

First non-adiabatic quantum dynamics analysis of the ultracold K + KRb reaction, revealing interference effects that improve agreement with experiments.

Findings

Non-adiabatic effects alter reaction rate coefficients.

Quantum interference influences reaction dynamics.

Results align better with experimental measurements.

Abstract

The K + KRb $\longrightarrow$ Rb + K$_{2}$ chemical reaction is the first ultracold atom-diatom chemical reaction for which experimental results have been reported for temperatures below 1 $\mu$K more than a decade ago. The reaction occurs through coupling with an excited electronic state that is accessible even in the ultracold limit. A previous quantum dynamics study, excluding non-adiabatic effects, has reported a rate coefficient that is about 35\% below the experimental value. Here, we report the first non-adiabatic quantum dynamics study of this reaction and obtain rate coefficients in better agreement with experiments. Our results show that short-range dynamics mediated by coupling with the excited electronic state introduces quantum interference effects that influence both the state-to-state rate coefficients and the overall reaction rates.