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Valahu CH, Olaya-Agudelo VC, MacDonell RJ, Navickas T, Rao AD, Millican MJ, Pérez-Sánchez JB, Yuen-Zhou J, Biercuk MJ, Hempel C, Tan TR, Kassal I. Direct observation of geometric-phase interference in dynamics around a conical intersection. Nat Chem 2023; 15:1503-1508. [PMID: 37640849 DOI: 10.1038/s41557-023-01300-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/16/2022] [Accepted: 07/21/2023] [Indexed: 08/31/2023]
Abstract
Conical intersections are ubiquitous in chemistry and physics, often governing processes such as light harvesting, vision, photocatalysis and chemical reactivity. They act as funnels between electronic states of molecules, allowing rapid and efficient relaxation during chemical dynamics. In addition, when a reaction path encircles a conical intersection, the molecular wavefunction experiences a geometric phase, which can affect the outcome of the reaction through quantum-mechanical interference. Past experiments have measured indirect signatures of geometric phases in scattering patterns and spectroscopic observables, but there has been no direct observation of the underlying wavepacket interference. Here we experimentally observe geometric-phase interference in the dynamics of a wavepacket travelling around an engineered conical intersection in a programmable trapped-ion quantum simulator. To achieve this, we develop a technique to reconstruct the two-dimensional wavepacket densities of a trapped ion. Experiments agree with the theoretical model, demonstrating the ability of analogue quantum simulators-such as those realized using trapped ions-to accurately describe nuclear quantum effects.
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Affiliation(s)
- C H Valahu
- School of Physics, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- ARC Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - V C Olaya-Agudelo
- ARC Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- School of Chemistry, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - R J MacDonell
- ARC Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- School of Chemistry, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- University of Sydney Nano Institute, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- Department of Chemistry, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
| | - T Navickas
- School of Physics, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- ARC Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - A D Rao
- School of Physics, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- ARC Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - M J Millican
- School of Physics, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- ARC Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - J B Pérez-Sánchez
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - J Yuen-Zhou
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - M J Biercuk
- School of Physics, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- ARC Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - C Hempel
- School of Physics, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- ARC Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- Institute for Quantum Electronics, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
- ETH Zurich-PSI Quantum Computing Hub, Paul Scherrer Institut, Villigen, Switzerland
| | - T R Tan
- School of Physics, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
- ARC Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
| | - I Kassal
- ARC Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
- School of Chemistry, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
- University of Sydney Nano Institute, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
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