Cold heteromolecular dipolar collisions

Brian C. Sawyer; Benjamin K. Stuhl; Mark Yeo; Timur V. Tscherbul; Matthew T. Hummon; Yong Xia; Jacek Kłos; David Patterson; John M. Doyle; Jun Ye

doi:10.1039/C1CP21203F

Cold heteromolecular dipolar collisions†

Brian C. Sawyer,*^a Benjamin K. Stuhl,^a Mark Yeo,^a Timur V. Tscherbul,^bc Matthew T. Hummon,^a Yong Xia,^ad Jacek Kłos,^e David Patterson,^b John M. Doyle^b and Jun Ye^a

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* Corresponding authors

^a JILA, National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Colorado, Department of Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309-0440, USA
E-mail: bsawyer@nist.gov
Fax: +1 303-492-5235
Tel: +1 303-492-7789

^b Department of Physics, Harvard University, Harvard-MIT Center for Ultracold Atoms, Massachusetts 02138, Cambridge, USA

^c ITAMP, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Massachusetts 02138, Cambridge, USA

^d Department of Physics, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China

^e Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Maryland, College Park, USA

Abstract

Cold molecules promise to reveal a rich set of novel collision dynamics in the low-energy regime. By combining for the first time the techniques of Stark deceleration, magnetic trapping, and cryogenic buffer gas cooling, we present the first experimental observation of cold collisions between two different species of state-selected neutral polar molecules. This has enabled an absolute measurement of the total trap loss cross sections between OH and ND₃ at a mean collision energy of 3.6 cm⁻¹ (5 K). Due to the dipolar interaction, the total cross section increases upon application of an external polarizing electric field. Cross sections computed from ab initio potential energy surfaces are in agreement with the measured value at zero external electric field. The theory presented here represents the first such analysis of collisions between a ²Π radical and a closed-shell polyatomic molecule.

This article is part of the themed collection: Physics and chemistry of cold molecules

Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics

Cold heteromolecular dipolar collisions†

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