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Physical Review Letters

Long-Range Forces between Cold Atoms

A. Fioretti, D. Comparat, Cyril Drag, Thomas F. Gallagher, P. Pillet

Published Mar 1, 1999• 77 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Long-range interactions can substantially modify collision or interaction processes among cold atoms. We are able to monitor their effects on two different systems: Cs atoms which undergo photoassociation and highly excited Cs Rydberg atoms. Although the length and the time scales of the interactions are quite different, their effects can be described with the same resonant dipole picture.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.82.1839

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Long-range interactions can substantially modify collision or interaction processes among cold atoms. We are able to monitor their effects on two different systems: Cs atoms which undergo photoassociation and highly excited Cs Rydberg atoms. Although the length and the time scales of the interactions are quite different, their effects can be described with the same resonant dipole picture.
We have observed the sharply resonant enhancement of the cross section of the collision process $ns+ns\ensuremath{\rightarrow}np+(n\ensuremath{-}1)p$ between two Nans\mathrm{Na}nsNans (16< n< 2716<~n<~2716< n< 27) atoms which occurs when the levels are shifted by an electric field so that the nsnsns level lies midway between the two ppp states. The widths of the collisional resonances scale as ${n}^{\ensuremath{-}2}$ and the magnitudes of the cross sections as n4{n}^{4}n4, with values of 0.5 GHz and 8\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}108{10}^{8}108 A˚2{\mathrm{\AA{}}}^{2}A˚2 for the 20s20s20s state. These results are in good agreement with calculations based on the long-range dipole-dipole interaction between the two atoms.
New development in cold collisions has revived the interest in the process of photoassociation, because the free-bound transitions are very selective at extremely low temperatures. Some molecular systems where photoassociation has been observed in the past may now be studied in much greater detail than ever before. The photoassociation from the weakly bound Cs2 molecules at elevated and ultra cold temperatures will form peculiar molecules in their excited states in the intermediate internuclear distances.
The experimental investigation of the resonant collision process $\mathrm{Na}ns+\mathrm{Na}\mathrm{ns}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\mathrm{Na}np+\mathrm{Na}(n\ensuremath{-}1)p$ which occurs when the levels are tuned with an electric field so that the ns\mathrm{ns}ns level lies midway between the two ppp levels is described in detail. The observations are shown to be in good agreement with a long-range resonant dipole-dipole interaction.