Towards a coherent control of the cold H + D₂ and D + HD chemical reactions through stereodynamic preparation of the reactants

Stereodynamic control of the inelastic scattering of ro-vibrationally excited molecules, in cold collisions, has been demonstrated recently by combining a co-expansion of the colliding species in a single molecular beam and the Stark-induced adiabatic Raman Passage (SARP) technique for molecular state preparation. We have recently explored this approach for the title reactions, in which specific alignments of the bond-axis for both reactants are considered. We have found strong evidence that supports a nearly-total stereodynamic control of the reaction, from significant enhancement to near complete suppression for molecules prepared in the v=4 vibrational level for which the reaction occurs along a barrierless pathway. In this work, we explore quantum coherence effects in this reaction, considering two simultaneous alignments of the bond-axis using a cross polarizing scheme as in the X-SARP experiment.