Ultracold Rb-OH Collisions and Prospects for Sympathetic Cooling

Lara, M.; Bohn, J.L.; Potter, D.E.; Soldan, P.; Hutson, J.M

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.97.183201

Ultracold Rb-OH Collisions and Prospects for Sympathetic Cooling

Lara, M.; Bohn, J.L.; Potter, D.E.; Soldan, P.; Hutson, J.M

Authors

M. Lara

J.L. Bohn

D.E. Potter

P. Soldan

Professor Jeremy Hutson j.m.hutson@durham.ac.uk
Professor

Abstract

We compute ab initio cross sections for cold collisions of Rb atoms with OH radicals. We predict collision rate constants of order 10-11 cm3/s at temperatures in the range 10–100 mK at which molecules have already been produced. However, we also find that in these collisions the molecules have a strong propensity for changing their internal state, which could make sympathetic cooling of OH in a Rb buffer gas problematic in magnetostatic or electrostatic traps.

Citation

Lara, M., Bohn, J., Potter, D., Soldan, P., & Hutson, J. (2006). Ultracold Rb-OH Collisions and Prospects for Sympathetic Cooling. Physical Review Letters, 97, https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.97.183201

Journal Article Type	Article
Publication Date	Nov 1, 2006
Deposit Date	May 10, 2007
Publicly Available Date	Sep 20, 2010
Journal	Physical Review Letters
Print ISSN	0031-9007
Electronic ISSN	1079-7114
Publisher	American Physical Society
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	97
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.97.183201