Ultracold Rb-OH Collisions and Prospects for Sympathetic Cooling
Manuel Lara, John L. Bohn, Daniel Potter +2 more
We compute ab initio cross sections for cold collisions of Rb atoms with OH radicals. We predict collision rate constants of order 10(-11) cm3/s at temperatures in the range 10-100 mK at which molecules have already been produced. However, we also find that in these collisions the molecules have a strong propensity for changing their internal state, which could make sympathetic cooling of OH in a Rb buffer gas problematic in magnetostatic or electrostatic traps.
arXiv:physics/0607084•Physical Review Letters•Nov 3, 2006•104 citations