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 (vjk) diatomic states is used to control reactive integral and differential cross sections in D + H-2(vjk)--> H + 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. [S0031-9007( 98)07470-5].