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ULTRACOLD CHEMISTRY

Collision detection with logic

Nature Physics volume 18, pages 493–494 (2022)Cite this article

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Controlling chemistry at the single-collision level is one of the main goals of experiments at ultralow temperatures. A method based on quantum logic techniques has now been shown to detect inelastic collisions in a hybrid ion–atom platform.

Getting a deeper understanding and better control of chemical reactions is one of the goals of the field of ultracold matter. Cooling down systems of atoms and molecules below 1 K allows the preparation of reactants in selected quantum states and enhances their control with external electromagnetic fields. As they report in Nature Physics, Or Katz and colleagues have now developed a technique to observe elastic, inelastic and chemically reactive collisions of individual pairs in a cold mixture of ions and atoms1.

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Fig. 1: Quantum logic detection of an exothermic inelastic collision.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland

    Michał Tomza

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  1. Michał Tomza
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Correspondence to Michał Tomza.

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The author declares no competing interests.

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Tomza, M. Collision detection with logic. Nat. Phys. 18, 493–494 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-022-01550-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-022-01550-x

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