Vibrational quenching of the electronic ground state in ThO in cold collisions with ${}^3$He

Abstract

We measure the ratio $\gamma$ of the momentum-transfer to the vibrational quenching cross section for the X (${}^1{\Sigma }^{+}$), $\nu =1$, $\mathrm{J}=0$ state of molecular thorium monoxide (ThO) in collisions with atomic ${}^3$He between 800 mK and 2.4 K. We observe indirect evidence for ThO--He van der Waals' complex formation, which has been predicted by theory. We determine the 3-body recombination rate constant ${\Gamma }_3$ at 2.4 K, and establish that the binding energy E${}_b>$ 4 K.

References in corpus (3)

• Order of Magnitude Smaller Limit on the Electric Dipole Moment of the Electron
• Realizing a lattice spin model with polar molecules
• Ultracold molecules: new probes on the variation of fundamental constants

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Full-dimensional quantum scattering calculations on ultracold atom-molecule collisions in magnetic fields: The role of molecular vibrations