Molecular collisions in ultracold atomic gases

2006/10/24 by Jeremy M. Hutson, Pavel Soldán, Pavel Soldan · 88 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Frequency and Time Standards #Atom (system on chip) #Atomic physics #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Elastic collision #Electron #Inelastic collision #Inelastic scattering #Kinetic energy #Molecule #Nuclear physics #Physics #Potential energy #Quantum #Quantum, superfluid, helium dynamics #Scattering #Spin (aerodynamics) #Ultracold atom #physics.atom-ph #physics.chem-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1080/01442350601084562

published in International Reviews in Physical Chemistry 26(1), 1-28 (Taylor & Francis) · Review article accepted for publication in International Reviews in Physical Chemistry. To be published in Vol. 26, issue 1 (January 2007)

arxiv created 2006/10/24 · openalex publication_date 2007/01/01 · arxiv updated 2010/03/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

It has recently become possible to form molecules in ultracold gases of trapped alkali metal atoms. Once formed, the molecules may undergo elastic, inelastic and reactive collisions. Inelastic and reactive collisions are particularly important because they release kinetic energy and eject atoms and molecules from the trap. The theory needed to handle such collisions is presented and recent quantum dynamics calculations on ultracold atom–diatom collisions of spin-polarized Li + Li2, Na + Na2 and K + K2 are described. All these systems have potential energy surfaces on which barrierless atom exchange reactions can occur, and both inelastic and reactive rates are very fast (typically k inel > 10-10 cm3 s−1 in the Wigner regime).

Citations

• Creation of a Molecular Condensate by Dynamically Melting a Mott Insulator
• Ultracold Collisions Involving Heteronuclear Alkali Metal Dimers
• Formation of Quantum-Degenerate Sodium Molecules
• Emergence of a molecular Bose–Einstein condensate from a Fermi gas
• Dissociation and Decay of Ultracold Sodium Molecules
• Weakly Bound Dimers of Fermionic Atoms
• Production of Long-Lived UltracoldLi2Molecules from a Fermi Gas
• Evidence for Efimov quantum states in an ultracold gas of caesium atoms
• Spontaneous Dissociation of Long-Range Feshbach Molecules
• Bose-Einstein Condensation of Molecules
• The calculation of small molecular interactions by the differences of separate total energies. Some procedures with reduced errors
• Observation of Bose-Einstein Condensation of Molecules
• Alternating gradient focusing and deceleration of polar molecules

Cited by

• Formation of deeply bound molecules via chainwise adiabatic passage