2008/04/30 by Mikhail Lemeshko, Bretislav Friedrich · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Chemical Physics Studies #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #physics.atm-clus #physics.chem-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1063/1.2948392
published as J. Chem. Phys., 129, 024301 (2008)
openalex publication_date 2008/07/08 · arxiv created 2008/07/09 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We present an analytic model of thermal state-to-state rotationally inelastic collisions of polar molecules in electric fields. The model is based on the Fraunhofer scattering of matter waves and requires Legendre moments characterizing the "shape" of the target in the body-fixed frame as its input. The electric field orients the target in the space-fixed frame and thereby effects a striking alteration of the dynamical observables: both the phase and amplitude of the oscillations in the partial differential cross sections undergo characteristic field-dependent changes that transgress into the partial integral cross sections. As the cross sections can be evaluated for a field applied parallel or perpendicular to the relative velocity, the model also offers predictions about steric asymmetry. We exemplify the field-dependent quantum collision dynamics with the behavior of the Ne-OCS((1)Sigma) and Ar-NO((2)Pi) systems. A comparison with the close-coupling calculations available for the latter system [Chem. Phys. Lett. 313, 491 (1999)] demonstrates the model's ability to qualitatively explain the field dependence of all the scattering features observed.