Tomography of Feshbach Resonance States

Abstract

Feshbach resonances are fundamental to interparticle interactions and become particularly important in cold collisions with atoms, ions, and molecules. Here we present the detection of Feshbach resonances in a benchmark system for strongly interacting and highly anisotropic collisions -- molecular hydrogen ions colliding with noble gas atoms. The collisions are launched by cold Penning ionization exclusively populating Feshbach resonances that span both short- and long-range parts of the interaction potential. We resolved all final molecular channels in a tomographic manner using ion-electron coincidence detection. We demonstrate the non-statistical nature of the final state distribution. By performing quantum scattering calculations on ab initio potential energy surfaces, we show that the isolation of the Feshbach resonance pathways reveals their distinctive fingerprints in the collision outcome.