Molecular Beam Scattering
An important application of Stark-decelerated molecular beams is in molecular beam scattering experiments. A Stark-decelerator provides packets of molecules with an almost perfect quantum state purity, a tunable velocity, and a narrow spatial, temporal, and velocity distribution. The velocity tunability of these beams offers the revolutionary capability to study (in)elastic or reactive scattering as a function of the continuously variable collision energy, from low to high collision energies, and with a high intrinsic energy resolution. These monochromatic beams can be used, for instance, to resolve the quantum mechanical details of the scattering process that are most desired to test theoretical potential energy surfaces.
This research program started in 2006 at the Fritz-Haber-Institute of the Max-Planck-Society in Berlin, and is now contiunued and developed further at the Radboud University Nijmegen.
Research Projects:
Low-energy atom-molecule inelastic collisions
Low-energy molecule-molecule inelastic collisions
Velocity map ion imaging
Our key publications on this topic:
Imaging resonances in low-energy NO-He inelastic collisions
Science 350, 787 (2015).
High-resolution imaging of velocity-controlled molecular collisions using counterpropagating beams
Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 263202 (2014).
State-resolved diffraction oscillations imaged for inelastic collisions of NO radicals with He, Ne and Ar.
Nature Chemistry 6, 216-221 (2014).
Observation of partial wave resonances in low-energy O2-H2 inelastic collisions
Science 314, 1094 (2013).
Quantum-state resolved bimolecular collisions of velocity controlled OH with NO radicals
Science 338, 1060 (2012).
Near-threshold inelastic collisions using molecular beams with a tunable velocity
Science 313, 1617 (2006).