1. Could you explain the significance of your article to the non-specialist? 

In a bimolecular reaction, the two products are always formed as a pair from any single reactive event. The conventional product state distribution measurements for one species is, however, blind to the state distribution of its coproduct, thus, masking the detailed mechanistic views of how the old bond rupture and the new bond formation processes occur. In this review article, we introduce the concept of the product pair correlation, outline our recent efforts in developing a new experimental approach to provide such types of coincident information, and highlight our findings by some illustrative examples. 

 

2. What has motivated you to conduct this work? 

We want to go beyond the prototypical atom + diatom reactions. But, for polyatomic reactions, often the two products are molecular species; both of them have internal structures like vibrational and rotational energy levels. The question is how to devise an experimental approach to reveal the state-correlation of the two product pairs in a most apparent way.

 

3. Where do you see this work developing in the future? 

As demonstrated in the examples shown in the article, the general methodology is now developed and many otherwise "hidden" dynamics information can be recovered from such measurements. One can surely apply it to many reactions of chemical significances. We also outline in the article some other possible variants of this approach, which are awaiting to be implemented and flourished by many other researchers in the field.

 

4. Are there any particular challenges facing future research in this area? 

Theory! Clearly, at present the experiment is ahead of theory. But, to move forward further and to gain deeper physical insights into polyatomic reaction dynamics, the theoretical inputs are absolutely essential and urgently needed.