Observation of the geometric phase effect in the H+HD→H<sub>2</sub>+D reaction below the conical intersection.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 32686682.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-020-17381-4 and PMC identifier 7371868.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
It has long been known that there is a conical intersection (CI) between the ground and first excited electronic state in the H<sub>3</sub> system. Its associated geometric phase (GP) effect has been theoretically predicted to exist below the CI since a long time. However, the experimental evidence has not been established yet and its dynamical origin is waiting to be elucidated. Here we report a combined crossed molecular beam and quantum reactive scattering dynamics study of the H+HD → H<sub>2</sub>+D reaction at 2.28 eV, which is well below the CI. The GP effect is clearly identified by the observation of distinct oscillations in the differential cross section around the forward direction. Quantum dynamics theory reveals that the GP effect arises from the phase alteration of a small part of the wave function, which corresponds to an unusual roaming-like abstraction pathway, as revealed by quasi-classical trajectory calculations.