Related papers: Stereodynamical control of cold collisions between…
We theoretically explore photoassociation by Adiabatic Passage of two colliding cold ^{85}Rb atoms in an atomic trap to form an ultracold Rb_2 molecule. We consider the incoherent thermal nature of the scattering process in a trap and show…
We develop a rigorous quantum mechanical theory for collisions of polyatomic molecular radicals with S-state atoms in the presence of an external magnetic field. The theory is based on a fully uncoupled space-fixed basis set representation…
In quantum mechanics, collisions between two particles are captured by a scattering matrix which describes the transfer from an initial entrance state to an outgoing final state. Analyticity of the elements of this $S$-matrix enables their…
In recent years it became possible to align molecules in free space using ultrashort laser pulses. Here we explore two schemes for controlling molecule-surface scattering process, which are based on the laser-induced molecular alignment. In…
Efficient sub-Doppler laser cooling and optical trapping of YO molecules offer new opportunities to study collisional dynamics in the quantum regime. Confined in a crossed optical dipole trap, we achieve the highest phase-space density of…
We suggest a technique to induce effective, controllable interactions between atoms that is based on Raman scattering into an optical mode propagating with a slow group velocity. The resulting excitation corresponds to the creation of…
Chemical reaction rates often depend strongly on stereodynamics, namely the orientation and movement of molecules in three-dimensional space. An ultracold molecular gas, with a temperature below 1 uK, provides a highly unusual regime for…
Exploring inelastic and reactive collisions on the quantum level is a main goal of the developing field of ultracold chemistry. We present first experimental studies of inelastic collisions of metastable ultracold triplet molecules in the…
We present a formalism for rigorous calculations of cross sections for inelastic and reactive collisions of ultracold atoms and molecules confined by laser fields in quasi-2D geometry. Our results show that the elastic-to-inelastic ratios…
In systems of ultracold atoms, pairwise interactions are resonantly enhanced by the application of an oscillating magnetic field that is parallel to the spin-quantization axis of the atoms. The resonance occurs when the frequency of the…
We study, both theoretically and experimentally, the scattering properties of optical dipole-mode vector solitons - radially asymmetric composite self-trapped optical beams. First, we analyze the soliton collisions in an isotropic…
We present experimental evidence for spin-orbit interaction of an electron as it scatters from a neutral atom. The scattering process takes place within a Rb$_2$ ultralong-range Rydberg molecule, consisting of a Rydberg atomic core, a…
We propose and computationally study a method for simultaneously orienting the angular momentum of asymmetric top molecules along: 1) a laboratory-fixed direction; 2) the molecular intermediate moment of inertia axis; 3) the laser field…
Microscopic control over polar molecules with tunable interactions would enable realization of novel quantum phenomena. Using an applied electric field gradient, we demonstrate layer-resolved state preparation and imaging of ultracold…
We provide a theoretical framework describing slow-light polaritons interacting via atomic Rydberg states. We use a diagrammatic method to analytically derive the scattering properties of two polaritons. We identify parameter regimes where…
We introduce a model to study the collisions of two ultracold diatomic molecules in one dimension interacting via pairwise potentials. We present results for this system, and argue that it offers lessons for real molecular collisions in…
Tunable scattering resonances are crucial for controlling atomic and molecular systems. However, their use has so far been limited to ultracold temperatures. These conditions remain hard to achieve for most hybrid trapped ion-atom systems…
Rydberg alkaline earth atoms are promising tools for quantum simulation and metrology. When one of the two valence electrons is promoted to long-lived circular states, the second valence electron can be optically manipulated without…
Studies of ion-molecule reactions at low temperatures are difficult because stray electric fields in the reaction volume affect the kinetic energy of charged reaction partners. We describe a new experimental approach to study ion-molecule…
Accurately modelling cold and ultracold reactive collisions occuring over deep potential wells, such as \ce{D+ + H2 -> H+ + HD}, requires the development of new theoretical and computational methodologies. One potentially useful framework…