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MO: Molekülphysik

MO 54: Cold Molecules II

MO 54.2: Talk

Thursday, March 16, 2006, 14:15–14:30, H10

Atom-molecule collisions in an optically trapped gas — •Marcel Mudrich^1,2, Nassim Zahzam², Thibault Vogt², Daniel Comparat², and Pierre Pillet² — ¹Physikalisches Institut, Universität Freiburg — ²Laboratoire Aimé Cotton, Orsay, France

Cold inelastic collisions between Cs atoms and Cs₂ molecules are investigated inside a CO₂ laser dipole trap [1,2]. Inelastic atom-molecule collisions are observed with a rate constant of ∼ 9× 10⁻¹¹ cm³s⁻¹, mainly independent of the populated molecular electronic (a³Σ_u⁺ / X¹Σ_g) and ro-vibrational states. Storage times of pure atomic and molecular samples are essentially limited by rest gas collisions. The pure molecular rest-gas limited lifetime of up to 1 s is four times smaller than the atomic one, as observed in a pure magnetic trap. We estimate the inelastic molecule-molecule collision rate to be of the order of ∼ 1× 10⁻¹¹ cm³s⁻¹.
[1] N. Zahzam, T. Vogt, M. Mudrich, D. Comparat, P. Pillet, physics/0509197
P. Staanum, S. D. Kraft, J. Lange, R. Wester, M. Weidemüller, physics/0509123