Theory of laser enhancement and suppression of cold reactions: The fermion-boson Li6 + Li27 ω0 Li6 Li7 + Li7 radiative collision

Abstract

We present a nonperturbative time-dependent quantum mechanical theory of the laser catalysis and control of a bifurcating A+BC ω0 AB C* (v) ω0 AB+C reaction, with AB C* (v) denoting an intermediate, electronically excited, complex of ABC in the vth vibrational state. We apply this theory to the low collision energy fermion-boson light-induced exchange reaction, Li6 (S2) + Li27 (u+3) ω0 (Li6 Li7 Li7)* ω0 Li6 Li7 (+3) + Li7 (S2). We show that at very low collision energies and energetically narrow (∼0.01 cm-1) initial reactant wave packets, it is possible to tune the yield of the exchange reaction from 0 to near-unity (yield 99%) values. Controllability is somewhat reduced at collisions involving energetically wider (∼1 cm-1) initial reactant wave packets. At these energetic bandwidths, the radiative reactive control, although still impressive, is limited to the 0%-76% reactive-probabilities range. © 2008 American Institute of Physics.