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Journal of Physics A Mathematical and General

Analytical calculations of scattering lengths in atomic physics

Radosław Szmytkowski

Published Dec 21, 1995• 41 citations

Abstract

We describe a method for evaluating analytical long-range contributions to scattering lengths for some potentials used in atomic physics. We assume that an interaction potential between colliding particles consists of two parts. The form of a short-range component, vanishing beyond some distance from the origin (a core radius), need not be given. Instead, we assume that a set of short-range scattering lengths due to that part of the interaction is known. A long-range tail of the potential is chosen to be an inverse power potential, a superposition of two inverse power potentials with suitably chosen exponents or the Lent potential. For these three classes of long-range interactions a radial Schrodinger equation at zero energy may be solved analytically with solutions expressed in terms of the Bessel, Whittaker and Legendre functions, respectively. We utilize this fact and derive exact analytical formulae for the scattering lengths. The expressions depend on the short-range scattering lengths, the core radius and parameters characterizing the long-range part of the interaction. Cases when the long-range potential (or its part) may be treated as a perturbation are also discussed and formulae for scattering lengths linear in strengths of the perturbing potentials are given. It is shown that for some combination of the orbital angular momentum quantum number and an exponent of the leading term of the potential the derived formulae, exact or approximate, take very simple forms and contain only polynomial and trigonometric functions. The expressions obtained in this paper are applicable to scattering of charged particles by neutral targets and to collisions between neutrals. The results are illustrated by accelerating convergence of scattering lengths computed for e - -Xe and Cs-Cs systems.

DOI: 10.1088/0305-4470/28/24/027

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We describe a method for evaluating analytical long-range contributions to scattering lengths for some potentials used in atomic physics. We assume that an interaction potential between colliding particles consists of two parts. The form of a short-range component, vanishing beyond some distance from the origin (a core radius), need not be given. Instead, we assume that a set of short-range scattering lengths due to that part of the interaction is known. A long-range tail of the potential is chosen to be an inverse power potential, a superposition of two inverse power potentials with suitably chosen exponents or the Lent potential. For these three classes of long-range interactions a radial Schrodinger equation at zero energy may be solved analytically with solutions expressed in terms of the Bessel, Whittaker and Legendre functions, respectively. We utilize this fact and derive exact analytical formulae for the scattering lengths. The expressions depend on the short-range scattering lengths, the core radius and parameters characterizing the long-range part of the interaction. Cases when the long-range potential (or its part) may be treated as a perturbation are also discussed and formulae for scattering lengths linear in strengths of the perturbing potentials are given. It is shown that for some combination of the orbital angular momentum quantum number and an exponent of the leading term of the potential the derived formulae, exact or approximate, take very simple forms and contain only polynomial and trigonometric functions. The expressions obtained in this paper are applicable to scattering of charged particles by neutral targets and to collisions between neutrals. The results are illustrated by accelerating convergence of scattering lengths computed for e - -Xe and Cs-Cs systems.

We derive two equivalent analytical expressions for an lth partial-wave scattering length al for central potentials with long-range tails of the form V(r)=−ℏ22mBrn−4(rn−2 + Rn−2)2−ℏ22mCr2(rn−2 + Rn−2), (r ⩾ rs, R > 0). For C = 0, this family of potentials reduces to the Lenz potentials discussed in a similar context in our earlier works [R. Szmytkowski, Acta Phys. Pol. A 79, 613 (1991); J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 28, 7333 (1995)]. The formulas for al that we provide in this paper depend on the parameters B, C, and R characterizing the tail of the potential, on the core radius rs, as well as on the short-range scattering length als, the latter being due to the core part of the potential. The procedure, which may be viewed as an analytical extrapolation from als to al, is relied on the fact that the general solution to the zero-energy radial Schrödinger equation with the potential given above may be expressed analytically in terms of the generalized associated Legendre functions.

In a recent paper, Reisfeld and Asaf [Phys. Rev. A 49, 348 (1994)] suggested a simple model explaining an observed correlation between the electron scattering lengths and electric polarizabilities of rare-gas atoms. They proposed an electron-target interaction potential consisting of a short-range hard-core repulsive part plus a long-range dipole polarization potential, and used the Born approximation to evaluate the scattering length. We show that for this model the scattering length may be evaluated analytically and that theoretical predictions based on an exact expression disagree with experimental data.

A simple analytical formula, a=a\ifmmode\bar\else\textasciimacron\fi{}[1-tan(\ensuremath{\pi}/n-2)tan{\ensuremath{\Phi}-[\ensuremath{\pi}/2(n-2)]}, is obtained for the scattering length in atomic collisions. Here a\ifmmode\bar\else\textasciimacron\fi{}=cos[\ensuremath{\pi}/(n-2)]{ \ensuremath{\surd}2M\ensuremath{\alpha} /[\ensuremath{\Elzxh}(n-2)]${\mathrm{}}}^{2/(\mathit{n}\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}2)}$[\ensuremath{\Gamma}(n-3)/(n-2)]/[T(n-1)/(n-2)] is the mean scattering length determined by the asymptotic behavior of the potential U(r)\ensuremath{\sim}-\ensuremath{\alpha}/

{\mathit{R}}^{\mathit{n}}

, (n=6 for atom-atom scattering or n=4 for ion-atom scattering), M is the reduced mass of the atoms, and \ensuremath{\Phi} is the semiclassical phase calculated at zero energy from the classical turning point to infinity. The value of a\ifmmode\bar\else\textasciimacron\fi{}, the average scattering length, also determines the slope of the s-wave phase shifts beyond the near-threshold region. The formula is applicable to the collisions of atoms cooled down in traps, where the scattering length determines the character of the atom-atom interaction. Our calculation shows that repulsion between atoms (a>0) is more likely than attraction with a ``probability'' of 75%. For the Cs-Cs scattering in the $^{3}\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Sigma}}_{\mathit{u}}$ state, a\ifmmode\bar\else\textasciimacron\fi{}=95.5

{\mathit{a}}_{\mathit{B}}

has been obtained, where

{\mathit{a}}_{\mathit{B}}

is the Bohr radius. The comparison of the calculated cross-section energy dependence with the experimental data gives evidence for a positive value for the Cs-Cs scattering length, which makes cesium Bose gas stable.

The interaction between atoms behaves as $\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\alpha}{/r}^{n}$ at large distances and, owing to the large reduced mass \ensuremath{\mu} of the collision pair, allows a semiclassical treatment within the potential well. As a result, the low-energy scattering is governed by two large parameters: the asymptotic parameter $\ensuremath{\gamma}=\sqrt{2\ensuremath{\mu}\ensuremath{\alpha}}/\ensuremath{\Elzxh}\ensuremath{\gg}{a}_{0}^{(n\ensuremath{-}2)/2}$ (

{a}_{0}

is the Bohr radius) and the semiclassical zero-energy phase $\ensuremath{\Phi}\ensuremath{\gg}1.$ In our previous work [Phys. Rev. A 48, 546 (1993)] we obtained an analytical expression for the scattering length

a,

which showed that it has 75% preference for positive values for

n=6,

characteristic of collisions between ground-state neutral atoms. In this paper we calculate the effective range and show that it is a function of

a,

${r}_{e}{=F}_{n}\ensuremath{-}{G}_{n}{/a+H}_{n}{/a}^{2},$ where

{a}_{0}

a,

and

{H}_{n}

depend only on \ensuremath{\gamma}. Thus, we know the

{F}_{n},

-phase shift at low momenta $k\ensuremath{\ll}{\ensuremath{\gamma}}^{\ensuremath{-}2/(n\ensuremath{-}2)}$ from the expansion $k\mathrm{cot}{\ensuremath{\delta}}_{0}\ensuremath{\simeq}\ensuremath{-}1/a+\frac{1}{2}{r}_{e}{k}^{2}.$ At $k\ensuremath{\gg}{\ensuremath{\gamma}}^{\ensuremath{-}2/(n\ensuremath{-}2)}$ the phase shift is obtained semiclassically as ${\ensuremath{\delta}}_{0}=\ensuremath{\Phi}+\ensuremath{\pi}/4\ensuremath{-}{I}_{n}{\ensuremath{\gamma}}^{2/n}{k}^{(n\ensuremath{-}2)/n},$ where ${I}_{n}=[n/(n\ensuremath{-}2)]\ensuremath{\Gamma}((n\ensuremath{-}1)/n)\ensuremath{\Gamma}((n+2)/2n)/\sqrt{\ensuremath{\pi}}.$ Therefore, \ensuremath{\gamma} and \ensuremath{\Phi} determine the

s

-wave atomic scattering in a wide range of momenta, as well as the positions of upper bound states of the diatomic molecule.

We calculate the s-wave scattering length and effective range and the p-wave scattering volume for 7 Li atoms interacting with 133 Cs atoms via the X 1 Σ + molecular potential. The length and volume are found by fitting the log-derivative of the zero energy wave function evaluated at short range to a long range expression that accounts for the leading van der Waals dispersion potential and then incorporating the remaining long range dispersion contributions to first order. The effective range is evaluated from a quadrature formula. The calculated parameters are checked from the zero energy limits of the scattering phase shifts. We comment on ill-conditioning in the calculated s-wave scattering length.

An ion and a polar molecule interact by an anisotropic ion-dipole potential scaling as $\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\alpha}\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}cos(\ensuremath{\theta})/{r}^{2}$ at large distances. Due to its long-range character, it modifies the properties of angular wave functions, which are no longer given by spherical harmonics. In addition, an effective centrifugal potential in the radial equation can become attractive for low angular momenta. In this paper, we develop a general framework for an ion-dipole reactive scattering, focusing on the regime of large $\ensuremath{\alpha}$. We introduce modified spherical harmonics as solutions of the angular part of the Schr\"odinger equation and derive several useful approximations in the limit of large $\ensuremath{\alpha}$. We present a formula for the scattering amplitude expressed in terms of the modified spherical harmonics and we derive expressions for the elastic and reactive collision rates. The solutions of the radial equation are given by Bessel functions, and we analyze their behavior in two distinct regimes corresponding, basically, to attractive and repulsive long-range centrifugal potentials. Finally, we study reactive collisions in the universal regime, where the short-range probability of loss or reaction is equal to unity.