Ultracold spin-polarized mixtures of {sup 2}{Sigma} molecules with S-state atoms: Collisional stability and implications for sympathetic cooling
- Harvard-MIT Center for Ultracold Atoms, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138 (United States)
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742 (United States)
- Department of Chemistry, Moscow State University, Moscow RU-119991 (Russian Federation)
The prospects of sympathetic cooling of polar molecules with magnetically cotrapped alkali-metal atoms are generally considered poor due to strongly anisotropic atom-molecule interactions leading to large spin relaxation rates. Using rigorous quantum scattering calculations based on ab initio interaction potentials, we show that inelastic spin relaxation in low-temperature collisions of CaH({sup 2}{Sigma}) molecules with Li and Mg atoms occurs at a slow rate despite the strongly anisotropic interactions. This unexpected result, which we rationalize using multichannel quantum-defect theory, opens up the possibility of sympathetic cooling of polar {sup 2}{Sigma} molecules with alkali-metal atoms in a magnetic trap and with alkaline-earth-metal atoms in an optical dipole trap.
- OSTI ID:
- 22080299
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review. A, Vol. 84, Issue 4; Other Information: (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1050-2947
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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