Observation of Resonances in Penning Ionization Reactions at Sub-Kelvin Temperatures in Merged Beams

Abstract

Relatively Cold Temperature is essentially a measure of relative atomic or molecular motion. Low temperature does not necessarily imply a sample at absolute rest—what is important is for every member of the sample to be moving (or not moving) at the same velocity. Techniques for studying reactions under extreme cooling have nonetheless tended to focus on slowing down molecules. Henson et al. (p. 234 ) now demonstrate an alternative approach in which two beams of distinct gas-phase reagents are merged so as to continue forward with very little spread in their velocity. The interactions thus occur at millikelvin temperatures, revealing signatures of nonclassical dynamics such as oscillatory ionization probabilities with small shifts in energy.