321 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
Molecules Near Absolute Zero and External Field Control of Atomic and Molecular Dynamics
This article reviews the current state of the art in the field of cold and
ultracold molecules and demonstrates that chemical reactions, inelastic
collisions and dissociation of molecules at subKelvin temperatures can be
manipulated with external electric or magnetic fields. The creation of
ultracold molecules may allow for spectroscopy measurements with extremely high
precision and tests of fundamental symmetries of nature, quantum computation
with molecules as qubits, and controlled chemistry. The probability of chemical
reactions and collisional energy transfer can be very large at temperatures
near zero Kelvin. The collision energy of ultracold atoms and molecules is much
smaller than perturbations due to interactions with external electric or
magnetic fields available in the laboratory. External fields may therefore be
used to induce dissociation of weakly bound molecules, stimulate forbidden
electronic transitions, suppress the effect of centrifugal barriers in outgoing
reaction channels or tune Feshbach resonances that enhance chemical reactivity
Inelastic Collisions in an Ultracold quasi-2D Gas
We present a formalism for rigorous calculations of cross sections for
inelastic and reactive collisions of ultracold atoms and molecules confined by
laser fields in quasi-2D geometry. Our results show that the
elastic-to-inelastic ratios of collision cross sections are enhanced in the
presence of a laser confinement and that the threshold energy dependence of the
collision cross sections can be tuned by varying the confinement strength and
external magnetic fields. The enhancement of the elastic-to-inelastic ratios is
inversely proportional to , where is
the kinetic energy and is the oscillation frequency of the trapped
particles in the confinement potential.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
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