Rotational state-changing cold collisions of hydroxyl ions with helium

Cold molecules are important for many applications(1), from fundamental precision measurements(2), quantum information processing(3), quantum-controlled chemistry(4), to understanding the cold interstellar medium(5). Molecular ions are known to be cooled efficiently in sympathetic collisions with cold atoms or ions(6-8). However, little knowledge is available on the elementary cooling steps, because the determination of quantum state-to-state collision rates at low temperature is very challenging for both experiment and theory. Here we present a method to manipulate molecular quantum states by non-resonant photodetachment. Based on this we provide absolute quantum scattering rate coefficients under full quantum state control for the rotationally inelastic collision of hydroxyl anions with helium. Experiment and quantum scattering theory show excellent agreement without adjustable parameters. Very similar rate coefficients are obtained for two different isotopes, which is linked to several quantum scattering resonances appearing at different energies. The presented method is also applicable to polyatomic systems and will help elucidate non-radiative processes in polyaromatic hydrocarbons and protein chromophores.