2007/01/17 by John M. McNamara, J. M. McNamara, R. J. W. Stas +2 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Frequency and Time Standards #Atomic and Subatomic Physics Research #Atomic physics #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Helium #Heteronuclear molecule #Homonuclear molecule #Ion #Ionization #Metastability #Molecule #Nuclear magnetic resonance #Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy #Physics #Quantum mechanics #physics.atom-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreva.75.062715
8 pages, 6 figures
arxiv created 2007/01/17 · openalex publication_date 2007/06/29 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We have investigated cold ionizing heteronuclear collisions in dilute mixtures of metastable (2\phantom\rule0.2em0ex3S1) 3He and 4He atoms, extending our previous work on the analogous homonuclear collisions [R. J. W. Stas et al., Phys. Rev. A 73, 032713 (2006)]. A simple theoretical model of such collisions enables us to calculate the heteronuclear ionization rate coefficient, for our quasiunpolarized gas, in the absence of resonant light (T=1.2\phantom\rule0.2em0exmK): K34(th)=2.4\ifmmode×\else\texttimes\fi10^\ensuremath-10\phantom\rule0.3em0excm3∕s. This calculation is supported by a measurement of K34 using magneto-optically trapped mixtures containing about 1\ifmmode×\else\texttimes\fi108 atoms of each species, K34(exp)=2.5(8)\ifmmode×\else\texttimes\fi10^\ensuremath-10\phantom\rule0.3em0excm3∕s. Theory and experiment show good agreement.