Reactive two-body and three-body collisions of Ba${}^{+}$ in an ultracold Rb gas

Abstract

We analyze reactive collisions of a single Ba${}^{+}$ ion in contact with an ultracold gas of Rb atoms at low three-body collision energies of 2.2(9) mK$\times k_{\mathrm{B}}$. Mapping out the Ba${}^{+}$ loss rate dependence on the Rb atom density we can discern two-body reactive collisions from three-body ones and for the first time determine both rate coefficients which are $k_2=3.1(6)(6)\times 10^{-13}{\text{cm}}^3{\text{s}}^{-1}$ and $k_3=1.04(4)(45)\times 10^{-24}{\text{cm}}^6{\text{s}}^{-1}$, respectively (statistical and systematic errors in parenthesis). Thus, the measured ternary recombination dominates over binary reactions even at moderate atom densities of $n\approx 10^{12}{\text{cm}}^{-3}$. The results for Ba${}^{+}$ and Rb are representative for a wide range of cold ion-atom systems and can serve as a guidance for the future development of the field of hybrid atom-ion research.

4 pages, 3 figures

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• Observation of Chemical Reactions between a Trapped Ion and Ultracold Feshbach Dimers
• Long-range atom-ion Rydberg molecule: A novel molecular binding mechanism
• Cold chemistry: a few-body perspective on impurity physics of a single ion in an ultracold bath
• Experimental apparatus for overlapping a ground-state cooled ion with ultracold atoms
• Trap-assisted complexes in cold atom-ion collisions
• Ultracold ion-atom experiments: cooling, chemistry, and quantum effects
• Single-shot energy measurement of a single atom and the direct reconstruction of its energy distribution
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• Spectral properties of a three body atom-ion hybrid system