300 research outputs found
Rotational predissociation of extremely weakly bound atom-molecule complexes produced by Feshbach resonance association
We study the rotational predissociation of atom - molecule complexes with
very small binding energy. Such complexes can be produced by Feshbach resonance
association of ultracold molecules with ultracold atoms. Numerical calculations
of the predissociation lifetimes based on the computation of the energy
dependence of the scattering matrix elements become inaccurate when the binding
energy is smaller than the energy width of the predissociating state. We derive
expressions that represent accurately the predissociation lifetimes in terms of
the real and imaginary parts of the scattering length and effective range for
molecules in an excited rotational state. Our results show that the
predissociation lifetimes are the longest when the binding energy is positive,
i.e. when the predissociating state is just above the excited state threshold.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figure
Three-State Feshbach Resonances Mediated By Second-Order Couplings
We present an analytical study of three-state Feshbach resonances induced by
second-order couplings. Such resonances arise when the scattering amplitude is
modified by the interaction with a bound state that is not directly coupled to
the scattering state containing incoming flux. Coupling occurs indirectly
through an intermediate state. We consider two problems: (i) the intermediate
state is a scattering state in a distinct open channel; (ii) the intermediate
state is an off-resonant bound state in a distinct closed channel. The first
problem is a model of electric-field-induced resonances in ultracold collisions
of alkali metal atoms [Phys. Rev. A 75, 032709 (2007)] and the second problem
is relevant for ultracold collisions of complex polyatomic molecules, chemical
reaction dynamics, photoassociation of ultracold atoms, and electron - molecule
scattering. Our analysis yields general expressions for the energy dependence
of the T-matrix elements modified by three-state resonances and the dependence
of the resonance positions and widths on coupling amplitudes for the
weak-coupling limit. We show that the second problem can be generalized to
describe resonances induced by indirect coupling through an arbitrary number of
sequentially coupled off-resonant bound states and analyze the dependence of
the resonance width on the number of the intermediate states.Comment: 27 pages, 4 figures; added a reference; journal reference/DOI refer
to final published version, which is a shortened and modified version of this
preprin
Vibrational energy transfer in ultracold molecule - molecule collisions
We present a rigorous study of vibrational relaxation in p-H2 + p-H2
collisions at cold and ultracold temperatures and identify an efficient
mechanism of ro-vibrational energy transfer. If the colliding molecules are in
different rotational and vibrational levels, the internal energy may be
transferred between the molecules through an extremely state-selective process
involving simultaneous conservation of internal energy and total rotational
angular momentum. The same transition in collisions of distinguishable
molecules corresponds to the rotational energy transfer from one vibrational
state of the colliding molecules to another.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Total angular momentum representation for atom-molecule collisions in electric fields
It is shown that the atom-molecule collision problem in the presence of an
external electric field can be solved using the total angular momentum
representation in the body-fixed coordinated frame, leading to a
computationally efficient method for ab initio modeling of low-temperature
scattering phenomena. Our calculations demonstrate rapid convergence of the
cross sections for vibrational and Stark relaxation in He-CaD collisions with
the number of total angular momentum states in the basis set, leading to a
5-100 fold increase in computational efficiency over the previously used
methods based on the fully uncoupled space-fixed representation. These results
open up the possibility of carrying out numerically converged quantum
scattering calculations on a wide array of atom-molecule collisions and
chemical reactions in the presence of electric fields.Comment: 19 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl
Predicting and verifying transition strengths from weakly bound molecules
We investigated transition strengths from ultracold weakly bound 41K87Rb
molecules produced via the photoassociation of laser-cooled atoms. An accurate
potential energy curve of the excited state (3)1Sigma+ was constructed by
carrying out direct potential fit analysis of rotational spectra obtained via
depletion spectroscopy. Vibrational energies and rotational constants extracted
from the depletion spectra of v'=41-50 levels were combined with the results of
the previous spectroscopic study, and they were used for modifying an ab initio
potential. An accuracy of 0.14% in vibrational level spacing and 0.3% in
rotational constants was sufficient to predict the large observed variation in
transition strengths among the vibrational levels. Our results show that
transition strengths from weakly bound molecules are a good measure of the
accuracy of an excited state potential.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figure
Coherent transfer of photoassociated molecules into the rovibrational ground state
We report on the direct conversion of laser-cooled 41K and 87Rb atoms into
ultracold 41K87Rb molecules in the rovibrational ground state via
photoassociation followed by stimulated Raman adiabatic passage.
High-resolution spectroscopy based on the coherent transfer revealed the
hyperfine structure of weakly bound molecules in an unexplored region. Our
results show that a rovibrationally pure sample of ultracold ground-state
molecules is achieved via the all-optical association of laser-cooled atoms,
opening possibilities to coherently manipulate a wide variety of molecules.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Loss of molecules in magneto-electrostatic traps due to nonadiabatic transitions
We analyze the dynamics of a paramagnetic, dipolar molecule in a generic
"magneto-electrostatic'' trap where both magnetic and electric fields may be
present. The potential energy that governs the dynamics of the molecules is
found using a reduced molecular model that incorporates the main features of
the system. We discuss the shape of the trapping potentials for different field
geometries, as well as the possibility of nonadiabatic transitions to untrapped
states, i.e., the analog of Majorana transitions in a quadrupole magnetic
atomic trap. Maximizing the lifetime of molecules in a trap is of great concern
in current experiments, and we assess the effect of nonadiabatic transitions on
obtainable trap lifetimes.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure
Channel Electron Multiplier and Channelplate Efficiencies for Detecting Positive Ions
Absolute detection efficiencies for singly and multiply charged positive ions have been measured for a channelplate and for two different channel electron multipliers (CEM). The efficiencies were measured for impact energies between approximately 0.25 and 25 keV and for ion masses ranging from 14 to 132. The maximum efficiencies were found to be the same for all ions investigated and were approximately 58% for a channelplate and 89% for the CEMs. For a channelplate it is shown that the detection efficiencies for heavier ions scale to a single curve if plotted versus the impact energy divided by the square root of the ion mass. Data taken from the literature imply that lighter ions scale differently. Polynomial fitting parameters to the present efficiency curves are provided
Cold and Slow Molecular Beam
Employing a two-stage cryogenic buffer gas cell, we produce a cold,
hydrodynamically extracted beam of calcium monohydride molecules with a near
effusive velocity distribution. Beam dynamics, thermalization and slowing are
studied using laser spectroscopy. The key to this hybrid, effusive-like beam
source is a "slowing cell" placed immediately after a hydrodynamic, cryogenic
source [Patterson et al., J. Chem. Phys., 2007, 126, 154307]. The resulting CaH
beams are created in two regimes. One modestly boosted beam has a forward
velocity of vf = 65 m/s, a narrow velocity spread, and a flux of 10^9 molecules
per pulse. The other has the slowest forward velocity of vf = 40 m/s, a
longitudinal temperature of 3.6 K, and a flux of 5x10^8 molecules per pulse
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