Young-type interference in collisions between hydrogen molecular ions and helium

Area of Science:

• Atomic and Molecular Physics
• Quantum Mechanics
• Chemical Physics

Background:

• Electron transfer reactions are fundamental in chemical and physical processes.
• Understanding dissociative electron transfer in molecular ions is crucial for plasma physics and astrophysics.
• Previous studies have explored electron transfer but lacked detailed kinematic resolution.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the mechanism of dissociative electron transfer from Helium to H2+.
• To observe and analyze interference patterns in the transverse momentum transfer during this process.
• To correlate interference patterns with internuclear distances and electronic wave function phase shifts.

Main Methods:

• Utilized kinematically complete experiments.
• Employed cold target recoil ion momentum spectroscopy (COLTRIMS) imaging.
• Combined COLTRIMS with a highly resolving molecular fragment imaging technique.

Main Results:

• Observed a distinct double-slit interference pattern in the transverse momentum transfer.
• Demonstrated that the interference pattern is tunable by selecting specific internuclear distances.
• Found that interference minima and maxima are interchanged compared to optical double-slit experiments.

Conclusions:

• The observed interference pattern arises from the dissociative electron transfer process.
• The interchange of minima and maxima is attributed to a phase shift in the electronic wave function.
• This study provides new insights into quantum interference in molecular collisions.