Non-adiabatically driven quantum interference effects in the ultracold K + KRb $\longrightarrow$ Rb + K$_{2}$ chemical reaction

Abstract

The K + KRb $\longrightarrow$ Rb + K$_{2}$ chemical reaction is the first ultracold atom-diatom chemical reaction for which experimental results have been reported for temperatures below 1 $\mu$K more than a decade ago. The reaction occurs through coupling with an excited electronic state that is accessible even in the ultracold limit. A previous quantum dynamics study, excluding non-adiabatic effects, has reported a rate coefficient that is about 35\% below the experimental value. Here, we report the first non-adiabatic quantum dynamics study of this reaction and obtain rate coefficients in better agreement with experiments. Our results show that short-range dynamics mediated by coupling with the excited electronic state introduces quantum interference effects that influence both the state-to-state rate coefficients and the overall reaction rates.