title: Staircase patterns of nuclear fluxes during coherent tunneling in excited doublets of symmetric double well potentials.
abstract: Tunneling isomerization of molecules with symmetric double well potentials are associated with periodic nuclear fluxes, from the reactant R to the product P and back to R. Halfway between R and P the fluxes achieve their maximum values at the potential barrier. For molecules in the lowest tunneling doublet (v = 0) the rises and falls to and from the maximum values are approximately bell-shaped. Upon excitation to higher tunneling doublets v = 1, 2, etc., however, this shape is replaced by symmetric "staircase patterns" of the fluxes, with v + 1 stepping up and down in the domains of R and P, respectively. The quantum derivation of the phenomenon is universal. It is demonstrated here for a simple model of nuclear fluxes during tunneling isomerization of ammonia along the umbrella inversion mode, with application to separation of isotopomers.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Quantum Optics and Quantum Optics Devices, Institute of Laser Spectroscopy, Shanxi University, 92 Wucheng Road, Taiyuan 030006, China. ygyang@sxu.edu.cn and Institut für Chemie und Biochemie, Freie Universität Berlin, Takustrasse 3, 14195 Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: ChunMei
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Quantum Optics and Quantum Optics Devices, Institute of Laser Spectroscopy, Shanxi University, 92 Wucheng Road, Taiyuan 030006, China. ygyang@sxu.edu.cn and Institut für Chemie und Biochemie, Freie Universität Berlin, Takustrasse 3, 14195 Berlin, Germany and Collaborative Innovation Center of Extreme Optics, Shanxi University, 92 Wucheng Road, Taiyuan 030006, China.
authors.forename: Jörn
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Manz
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Quantum Optics and Quantum Optics Devices, Institute of Laser Spectroscopy, Shanxi University, 92 Wucheng Road, Taiyuan 030006, China. ygyang@sxu.edu.cn and Collaborative Innovation Center of Extreme Optics, Shanxi University, 92 Wucheng Road, Taiyuan 030006, China.
authors.forename: Yonggang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yang