Rotational state-changing collisions between N${}_2^{+}$ and Rb at low energies

Abstract

We present a theoretical study of rotationally elastic and inelastic collisions between molecular nitrogen ions and Rb atoms in the sub-Kelvin temperature regime prevalent in ion-atom hybrid trapping experiments. The cross sections for rotational excitation and de-excitation collisions were calculated using quantum-scattering methods on ab-initio potential energy surfaces for the energetically lowest singlet electronic channel of the system. We find that the rotationally inelastic collision rates are at least an order of magnitude smaller than the charge-exchange rates found in this system, rendering inelastic processes a minor channel under the conditions of typical hybrid trapping experiments.

6 pages, 5 figures, Computational study of rotational state changing collisions

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Cited by in corpus (3)

• Quantum control of molecules for fundamental physics
• Generation of rotational ground state HD${}^{+}$ ions in an ion trap using a resonance-enhanced threshold photoionization process
• Ultracold ion-atom experiments: cooling, chemistry, and quantum effects