Inelastic collisions of optically trapped metastable calcium atoms

Abstract

We study binary collisions of metastable calcium atoms (${}^{40}$Ca) in an optical dipole trap. Collisions between ${}^3$P${}_0$-atoms and between ${}^3$P${}_0$ and ${}^1$S${}_0$-atoms are considered. In the former case, the elastic and inelastic collision parameters are found to be $5.4\times 10^{-11}{\mathrm{cm}}^3{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$ and $3.6\times 10^{-11}{\mathrm{cm}}^3{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$, respectively. A fraction of the collisions between ${}^3$P${}_0$-atoms is found to produce cold trapped atoms in the singlet ${}^1$S${}_0$ state, suggesting that the internal energy for these collisions is dissipated by radiation. For collisions between ${}^3$P${}_0$ and ${}^1$S${}_0$-atoms we find a two-body loss parameter of $8.5\times 10^{-11}{\mathrm{cm}}^3{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$. Our observations show that metastable calcium samples in the ${}^3$P${}_0$-state are not stable at high densities, as for example required in quantum computing or many-body quantum simulation schemes.

5 pages, 7 Figures

References in corpus (3)

• Quantum computing with alkaline earth atoms
• Bose-Einstein condensation of alkaline earth atoms: ${}^{40}${Ca}
• Inelastic Collisions in Optically Trapped Ultracold Metastable Ytterbium

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Pulse delay time statistics in a superradiant laser with calcium atoms
• Dissipative Bose-Hubbard system with intrinsic two-body loss
• A 3-photon process for producing a degenerate gas of metastable alkaline-earth atoms
• Coherent Three-Photon Excitation of the Strontium Clock Transition
• Suppression of two-body collisional loss in an ultracold gas via the Fano effect