Ultracold collision properties of metastable alkaline-earth atoms
Abstract
Ultra-cold collisions of spin-polarized 24Mg,40Ca, and 88Sr in the metastable 3P2 excited state are investigated. We calculate the long-range interaction potentials and estimate the scattering length and the collisional loss rate as a function of magnetic field. The estimates are based on molecular potentials between 3P2 alkaline-earth atoms obtained from ab initio atomic and molecular structure calculations. The scattering lengths show resonance behavior due to the appearance of a molecular bound state in a purely long-range interaction potential and are positive for magnetic fields below 50 mT. A loss-rate model shows that losses should be smallest near zero magnetic field and for fields slightly larger than the resonance field, where the scattering length is also positive.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.physics/0210076,
title = {Ultracold collision properties of metastable alkaline-earth atoms},
author = {Andrei Derevianko and Sergey G. Porsev and Svetlana Kotochigova and Eite Tiesinga and Paul S. Julienne},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:physics/0210076},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
4 pages, 4 figures