Harnessing chemical reactions for quantum science*

Chemical reactions through collisions are often seen as violent processes, where chemical bonds break and form. Can quantum coherence be preserved throughout the entire reaction? Can chemical reactions be harnessed to produce entangled product pairs as quantum resources?  Here, we investigate these questions by studying a ‘model’ gas-phase reaction 2KRb → K₂ + Rb₂ at ultracold temperatures, focusing on the nuclear spin degrees of freedom. In particular, we prepare the initial nuclear spins in KRb in an entangled state and characterize the preserved coherence in the nuclear spin wavefunction after the reaction by measuring the product state distribution. We find that the coherence in reactants is almost fully preserved, suggesting that entanglement can be prepared within the reactants, followed by a chemical reaction that produces separate, entangled molecules.