ABSTRACT
Alkali-Metal Dimer Systems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 3.4 Inelastic Molecule-Molecule Collisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
3.4.1 Molecules in the Ground Vibrational State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 3.4.2 Vibrationally Inelastic Transitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
3.5 Summary and Outlook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
The development of techniques for cooling and trapping of a wide variety of atomic and molecular species in recent years has created exciting opportunities for probing and controlling atomic and molecular encounters with unprecedented precision [1]. While many of the initial studies of cold atoms and molecules were centered on the creation of dense samples of cold and ultracold matter, more recent work has focused on the manipulation and control of intermolecular interactions, with the ultimate aim of achieving quantum control of atomic and molecular collisions [2]. Although the ideas of quantum control of chemical reactions were proposed many years ago, the ability to create ultracold molecules in specific quantum states has given further stimulus to this field. Its development requires that molecular properties and collisional behavior be well understood at cold and ultracold temperatures where the dynamics of molecules are dramatically different compared to collisions at elevated temperatures. Over the last ten years significant progress has been achieved both in theoretical and experimental works. The experimental methods such as photoassociation spectroscopy, magnetic tuning of Feshbach resonances, buffer-gas cooling, and Stark deceleration [3-6] have been developed and applied to a variety of molecular systems.Novelmethods to study ultracold chemical reactions involving ion-molecule systems in a linear Paul trap have been proposed [7]. External control of chemical reactions using electric and magnetic fields is another area of active interest [8]. The aim of this chapter is to provide an overview of recent progress in characterizing molecular processes and chemical reactions at cold and ultracold temperatures, with particular emphasis on theoretical developments in quantum-dynamics simulations of atom-molecule collision systems over the last ten years.
