Coherent Control of Reactive Scattering

Coherent control of bimolecular reactions is demonstrated for 3D atom-diatom reactive scattering. In particular, a superposition of initial degenerate $\left(\mathrm{vjk}\right)$ diatomic states is used to control reactive integral and differential cross sections in $\mathrm{D}+{\mathrm{H}}_2\left(\mathrm{vjk}\right)\to \mathrm{H}+\mathrm{HD}$, where $v$ and $j$ are the vibrational and rotational quantum numbers of a diatom and $k$ is the projection quantum number of the diatom angular momentum onto the initial relative translational velocity vector. Control over the ratio of reactive to nonreactive scattering is extensive.