Ultracold mixtures of metastable He and Rb: scattering lengths from ab initio calculations and thermalization measurements

Abstract

We have investigated the ultracold interspecies scattering properties of metastable triplet He and Rb. We performed state-of-the-art ab initio calculations of the relevant interaction potential, and measured the interspecies elastic cross section for an ultracold mixture of metastable triplet ${}^4$He and ${}^{87}$Rb in a quadrupole magnetic trap at a temperature of 0.5 mK. Our combined theoretical and experimental study gives an interspecies scattering length $a_{4+87}=+17_{-4}^{+1}$ $a_0$, which prior to this work was unknown. More general, our work shows the possibility of obtaining accurate scattering lengths using ab initio calculations for a system containing a heavy, many-electron atom, such as Rb.

11 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. A

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• Beyond universality: parametrizing ultracold complex-mediated reactions using statistical assumptions
• Quantum-State Controlled Penning Ionization Reactions between Ultracold Alkali and Metastable Helium Atoms
• Spin-state-controlled chemi-ionization reactions between metastable helium atoms and ground-state lithium atoms