The effect of a nonresonant radiative field on low-energy rotationally inelastic ${\text{Na}}^{+}+{\text{N}}_2$ collisions

Abstract

We examine the effects of a linearly polarized nonresonant radiative field on the dynamics of rotationally inelastic ${\text{Na}}^{+}+{\text{N}}_2$ collisions at eV collision energies. Our treatment is based on the Fraunhofer model of matter wave scattering and its recent extension to collisions in electric fields [arXiv:0804.3318v1]. The nonresonant radiative field changes the effective shape of the target molecule by aligning it in the space-fixed frame. This markedly alters the differential and integral scattering cross sections. As the cross sections can be evaluated for a polarization of the radiative field collinear or perpendicular to the relative velocity vector, the model also offers predictions about steric asymmetry of the collisions.

19 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Int. J. Mass Spec

References in corpus (1)

• An analytic model of rotationally inelastic collisions of polar molecules in electric fields

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Collisions of paramagnetic molecules in magnetic fields: an analytic model based on Fraunhofer diffraction of matter waves
• When diffraction rules the stereodynamics of rotationally inelastic collisions
• Multiple scattering of matter waves: an analytic model of the refractive index for atomic and molecular gases