Collisional Properties of Cold Spin-Polarized Metastable Neon Atoms

Abstract

We measure the rates of elastic and inelastic two-body collisions of cold spin-polarized neon atoms in the metastable 3P2 state for 20^Ne and 22^Ne in a magnetic trap. From particle loss, we determine the loss parameter of inelastic collisions beta=6.5(18)x10^{-12} cm^3s^{-1} for 20^Ne and beta=1.2(3)x10^{-11}cm^3{s}^{-1} for 22^Ne. These losses are caused by ionizing (i.e. Penning) collisions %to more than and occur less frequently than for unpolarized atoms. This proves the suppression of Penning ionization due to spin-polarization. From cross-dimensional relaxation measurements, we obtain elastic scattering lengths of a=-180(40) a_0 for 20^Ne and a=+150(+80/-50) a_0 for 22^Ne, where a_0=0.0529 nm.

4 pages, 3 figures

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• Determination of the s-wave Scattering Length of Chromium
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• Magneto-optical trapping of bosonic and fermionic neon isotopes and their mixtures: isotope shift of the ^3P_2 to ^3D_3 transition and hyperfine constants of the ^3D_3 state of Ne-21
• Laser cooling of a magnetically guided ultra cold atom beam
• Penning collisions between supersonically expanded metastable helium atoms and laser-cooled lithium atoms
• Inelastic collisions of optically trapped metastable calcium atoms
• Two-body loss rates for reactive collisions of cold atoms
• Heteronuclear collisions between laser-cooled metastable neon atoms
• Coherent dynamics in a five-level atomic system
• High-brightness ultra-cold metastable neon-beam