Dissociation and Decay of Ultracold Sodium Molecules
Takashi Mukaiyama, J. R. Abo-Shaeer, K. Xu +2 more
The dissociation of ultracold molecules was studied by ramping an external magnetic field through a Feshbach resonance. The observed dissociation energies directly yielded the strength of the atom-molecule coupling. They showed nonlinear dependence on the ramp speed. This was explained by a Wigner threshold law which predicts that the decay rate of the molecules above threshold increases with the density of states. In addition, inelastic molecule-molecule and molecule-atom collisions were characterized.
arXiv:cond-mat/0311558•Physical Review Letters•May 4, 2004•139 citations