Interactions and low-energy collisions between an alkali ion and an alkali atom of a different nucleus
Arpita Rakshit, Chedli Ghanmi, Hamid Berriche +1 more
Abstract We study theoretically interaction potentials and low-energy collisions between different alkali atoms and alkali ions. Specifically, we consider systems such as X + Y + , where X( Y + ) is either Li(Cs + ) or Cs(Li + ), Na(Cs + ) or Cs(Na + ) and Li(Rb + ) or Rb(Li + ). We calculate the molecular potentials of the ground and first two excited states of these three systems using a pseudopotential method and compare our results with those obtained by others. We derive ground-state scattering wave functions and analyze the cold collisional properties of these systems for a wide range of energies. We find that, in order to get convergent results for the total scattering cross sections for energies of the order 1 K, one needs to take into account at least 60 partial waves. The low-energy scattering properties calculated in this paper may serve as a precursor for experimental exploration of quantum collisions between an alkali atom and an alkali ion of a different nucleus.
arXiv:1504.03114•Journal of Physics B Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics•May 5, 2016•12 citations