Quantum reactive scattering of ultracold NH($X{}^3{\Sigma }^{-}$) radicals in a magnetic trap

Abstract

We investigate the ultracold reaction dynamics of magnetically trapped NH($X^3{\Sigma }^{-}$) radicals using rigorous quantum scattering calculations involving three coupled potential energy surfaces. We find that the reactive NH + NH cross section is driven by a short-ranged collisional mechanism, and its magnitude is only weakly dependent on magnetic field strength. Unlike most ultracold reactions observed so far, the NH + NH scattering dynamics is non-universal. Our results indicate that chemical reactions can cause more trap loss than spin-inelastic NH + NH collisions, making molecular evaporative cooling more difficult than previously anticipated.

Supporting Information available from authors on request

References in corpus (9)

• Precision Test of Mass Ratio Variations with Lattice-Confined Ultracold Molecules
• Magnetic trapping and Zeeman relaxation of imidogen (NH X-triplet-Sigma)
• Ultracold molecules: new probes on the variation of fundamental constants
• Cold N+NH Collisions in a Magnetic Trap
• Electrostatic trapping of metastable NH molecules
• Magnetic trapping of atomic nitrogen (14^N) and cotrapping of NH (X-triplet-Sigma-)
• Cold collisions of N atoms and NH molecules in magnetic fields
• Sympathetic cooling of polyatomic molecules with S-state atoms in a magnetic trap
• Efficient method for quantum calculations of molecule - molecule scattering properties in a magnetic field

Cited by in corpus (2)

• MARVEL analysis of the measured high-resolution spectra of ${}^{14}$NH
• Adiabatic Channel Capture Theory Applied to Cold Atom-Molecule Reactions: Li + CaH -> LiH + Ca at 1 K