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arXiv · 1901.06164

Quasi-1D ultracold rigid-rotor collisions : reactive and non-reactive cases

Romain Vexiau·Jean-Michel Launay·Andrea Simoni
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Abstract

We study polar alkali dimer scattering in a quasi-1D geometry for both reactive and non-reactive species. Elastic and reactive rates are computed as a function of the amplitude of a static electric field within a purely long-range model with suitable boundary conditions at shorter range. We describe the diatomic molecules as rigid rotors and results are compared to the fixed-dipole approximation. We show in particular that for molecules with a sufficiently strong induced dipole moment oriented perpendicular to the trap axis, the long-range repulsive interaction leads to the suppression of short-range processes. Such shielding effect occurs for both reactive and non-reactive molecules, preventing two-body reactions as well as losses due to "sticky processes" [Phys. Rev. A 85, 062712 (2012)] from occurring. The present results demonstrate the possibility to suppress loss rates in current ultracold molecule experiments using 1D confinement.

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Romain Vexiau, Jean-Michel Launay, Andrea Simoni. 2019-01-18. Quasi-1D ultracold rigid-rotor collisions : reactive and non-reactive cases. https://doi.org/10.1103/physreva.100.012704

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