Imaging the State-to-State Dynamics of the H + D₂ → HD + D Reaction at 1.42 eV

High-resolution state-resolved differential cross sections (DCSs) are of great importance in understanding quantum reaction dynamics, and they are the most detailed observables that can be experimentally measured. Here we report a synergic crossed molecular beam and quantum reaction dynamics study on the H + D₂ reaction. With the time-sliced velocity map ion imaging (VMI) technique and the near-threshold ionization scheme, we acquired the product rovibrational state-resolved DCSs of the H + D₂ (v = 0, j = 0) → HD (v', j') + D reaction at a collision energy of 1.42 eV. For HD products with small j' quantum numbers, significant forward scattering with clear angular oscillations was observed. The forward scattering disappears for the rotational states with large j' quantum numbers. Interestingly, as the j' number increases, the peak of the DCS shifts from backward to sideways systematically. The experimental observation agrees very well with theoretical quantum mechanical dynamics results, which reveals that the systematic shift of the peak in the DCS from backward scattering to sideways scattering can be understood very well with the strong correlation between the product rotational quantum number j' and the specific partial waves (J = 3-12), whereas the forward angular oscillations are from the coherent summation of larger partial waves.