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Physical Review A

Cold elastic and reactive atom-molecule collisions in helium–helium–alkali-metal triatomic systems

Hiroya Suno, Brett D. Esry

Published May 6, 2014• 11 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Atom-molecule collisions in helium--helium--alkali-metal triatomic systems at cold energies are studied using the adiabatic hyperspherical representation. We consider the elastic collision processes $^{4}\mathrm{He}X+^{4}\mathrm{He}\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}^{4}\mathrm{He}X+^{4}\mathrm{He}$ and $^{4}\mathrm{He}_{2}+X\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}^{4}\mathrm{He}_{2}+X$, as well as the reactive collision processes $^{4}\mathrm{He}X+^{4}\mathrm{He}\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\rightleftharpoons}^{4}\mathrm{He}_{2}+X$, where $X$ is one of the bosonic alkali-metal atoms: $^{7}\mathrm{Li}$, $^{23}\mathrm{Na}$, $^{39}\mathrm{K}$, $^{85}\mathrm{Rb}$, or $^{133}\mathrm{Cs}$. The elastic and reactive collision cross sections are calculated at nonzero collision energies by including not only zero atom-molecule relative angular momentum, $L=0$, processes but also $L>0$ processes. The total cross section for $^{4}\mathrm{He}X+^{4}\mathrm{He}\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}^{4}\mathrm{He}X+^{4}\mathrm{He}$ is found to increase with the scattering length between $^{4}\mathrm{He}$ and $X$, while the other collision processes are not found to have any systematic dependence on the alkali-metal species $X$.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.89.052701

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Atom-molecule collisions in helium--helium--alkali-metal triatomic systems at cold energies are studied using the adiabatic hyperspherical representation. We consider the elastic collision processes 4HeX+4He\ensuremath→4HeX+4He^{4}\mathrm{He}X+^{4}\mathrm{He}\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}^{4}\mathrm{He}X+^{4}\mathrm{He}4HeX+4He\ensuremath→4HeX+4He and 4He2+X\ensuremath→4He2+X^{4}\mathrm{He}_{2}+X\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}^{4}\mathrm{He}_{2}+X4He2​+X\ensuremath→4He2​+X, as well as the reactive collision processes 4HeX+4He\ensuremath⇌4He2+X^{4}\mathrm{He}X+^{4}\mathrm{He}\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\rightleftharpoons}^{4}\mathrm{He}_{2}+X4HeX+4He\ensuremath⇌4He2​+X, where XXX is one of the bosonic alkali-metal atoms: 7Li^{7}\mathrm{Li}7Li, 23Na^{23}\mathrm{Na}23Na, 39K^{39}\mathrm{K}39K, 85Rb^{85}\mathrm{Rb}85Rb, or 133Cs^{133}\mathrm{Cs}133Cs. The elastic and reactive collision cross sections are calculated at nonzero collision energies by including not only zero atom-molecule relative angular momentum, L=0L=0L=0, processes but also L>0L>0L>0 processes. The total cross section for 4HeX+4He\ensuremath→4HeX+4He^{4}\mathrm{He}X+^{4}\mathrm{He}\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}^{4}\mathrm{He}X+^{4}\mathrm{He}4HeX+4He\ensuremath→4HeX+4He is found to increase with the scattering length between 4He^{4}\mathrm{He}4He and XXX, while the other collision processes are not found to have any systematic dependence on the alkali-metal species XXX.
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