Related papers: Spin-state-controlled chemi-ionization reactions b…
The control of the ultracold collisions between neutral atoms is an extensive and successful field of study. The tools developed allow for ultracold chemical reactions to be managed using magnetic fields, light fields and spin-state…
In an ultracold, optically trapped mixture of $^{87}$Rb and metastable triplet $^4$He atoms we have studied trap loss for different spin-state combinations, for which interspecies Penning ionization is the main two-body loss process. We…
The efficient suppression of Penning-ionizing collisions is a stringent requirement to achieve quantum degeneracy in metastable rare gases. Thus far, such loss processes have been avoided by electron-spin polarizing the collision partners.…
We explore coherent control of Penning and associative ionization in cold collisions of metastable He$^*({2}^3\text{S})$ atoms via the quantum interference between different states of the He$_2^*$ collision complex. By tuning the…
Hybrid atom-ion systems are a rich and powerful platform for studying chemical reactions, as they feature both excellent control over the electronic state preparation and readout as well as a versatile tunability over the scattering energy,…
We present a theoretical and experimental investigation of homonuclear ionizing collisions of laser-cooled metastable helium atoms, considering both the fermionic He-3 and bosonic He-4 isotope. The theoretical description combines quantum…
We have studied photoassociation of metastable \tripS helium atoms near the \tripS-\tripP asymptote by both ion detection in a magneto-optical trap and trap-loss measurements in a magnetic trap. A detailed comparison between the results of…
We study an excited atom-polar molecular ion chemical reaction (Ca$^*$ + BaCl$^+$) at low temperature by utilizing a hybrid atom-ion trapping system. The reaction rate and product branching fractions are measured and compared to model…
Scattering and ionizing cross sections and rates are calculated for ultracold collisions between metastable helium atoms using a fully quantum-mechanical close-coupled formalism. Homonuclear collisions of the bosonic ${}^{4}$He$^{*}…
Experimentally the spin dependence of inelastic collisions between ytterbium (Yb) in the metastable 3P0 state and lithium (Li) in the Li ground state manifold is investigated at low magnetic fields. Using selective excitation all magnetic…
In this paper, the influence of chemi-ionization processes in $H^*(n \ge 2) + H(1s)$ collisions, as well as the influence of inverse chemi-recombination processes on hydrogen atom excited-state populations in solar photosphere, are compared…
The low-temperature (up to about 100K) collisional (de)excitation cross sections are computed using the full coupled-channel (CC) quantum dynamics for both Li$_2$ and Li$_2^+$ molecular targets in collision with $^4$He. The interaction…
Electron-impact ionization of lithium is studied using the convergent close-coupling (CCC) method at 25.4 and 54.4 eV. Particular attention is paid to the spin-dependence of the ionization cross sections. Convergence is found to be more…
We consider a neutralization of excited antiprotonic helium ion accompanied by antiproton transitions to lower states in collisions with helium atoms $(\bar{p}\mathrm{He}^{2+})_{nl} + \mathrm{He} \rightarrow \left[…
Spin-dipole mediated interactions between tightly confined metastable helium atoms couple the spin-polarized quintet ${}^{5}\Sigma^{+}_{g}$ state to the singlet ${}^{1}\Sigma^{+}_{g}$ state from which autoionization is highly probable,…
Attosecond pulses can ionize atoms in a coherent process. Since the emerging fragments are entangled, however, each preserves only a fraction of the initial coherence, thus limiting the chance of guiding the ion subsequent evolution. In…
Coherent control of reactive atomic and molecular collision processes remains elusive experimentally due to quantum interference-based requirements. Here, with insights from symmetry conditions, a viable method for controlling Penning and…
We describe an experimental setup comprised of a discharge source for supersonic beams of metastable helium atoms and a magneto-optical trap (MOT) for ultracold lithium atoms that makes it possible to study Penning ionization and…
We report on the observation of cold collisions between $^6$Li atoms and Yb$^+$ ions. This combination of species has recently been proposed as the most suitable for reaching the quantum limit in hybrid atom-ion systems, due to its large…
We present a rigorous quantum scattering study of the effects of hyperfine and Zeeman interactions on cold Li - H$_{2}$ collisions in the presence of an external magnetic field using a recent ab initio potential energy surface. We find that…