Cold collisions of highly rotationally excited CO{sub 2} with He: The prospects for cold chemistry with super-rotors

Journal Article · Tue Nov 15 00:00:00 EST 2011 · Physical Review. A

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVA.84.054701· OSTI ID:22095497

Al-Qady, W. H.; Forrey, R. C.; Yang, B. H.; Stancil, P. C.; Balakrishnan, N. ^[1]

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1. Department of Physics and Astronomy and the Center for Simulational Physics, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602 (United States)

Building on recent advances in ultrafast lasers and methods to slow molecules, an experiment is proposed to produce translationally cold CO{sub 2} super-rotors (j{approx}200) by combining an optical centrifuge with helium-buffer-gas cooling. Quantum mechanical calculations of the complex scattering length for He-CO{sub 2} collisions demonstrate that the efficiency of rotational quenching decreases rapidly with increasing rotational excitation j in the ultracold regime. Extrapolating to helium cryogenic temperatures, rotational quenching is predicted to remain inefficient up to {approx}1 K, allowing for the possible creation of a beam of translationally cold, rotationally hot molecules.

• OSTI ID: 22095497
• Journal Information: Physical Review. A, Vol. 84, Issue 5; 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

Related Subjects

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
ATOM-MOLECULE COLLISIONS
CARBON DIOXIDE
EFFICIENCY
EXCITATION
GAS COOLING
HELIUM
LASER RADIATION
MOLECULES
QUANTUM MECHANICS
QUENCHING
SCATTERING LENGTHS