Ultracold Hydrogen Atoms: A Versatile Coolant to Produce Ultracold Molecules

作者：Gonzalez Martinez Maykel L^*; Hutson Jeremy M

来源：Physical Review Letters, 2013, 111(20): 203004.

DOI：10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.203004

We show theoretically that ultracold hydrogen atoms have very favorable properties for sympathetic cooling of molecules to microkelvin temperatures. We calculate the potential energy surfaces for spin-polarized interactions of H atoms with the prototype molecules NH((3)Sigma(-)) and OH((II)-I-2) and show that they are shallow (50 to 80 cm(-1)) and only weakly anisotropic. We carry out quantum collision calculations on H + NH and H + OH and show that the ratio of elastic to inelastic cross sections is high enough to allow sympathetic cooling from temperatures well over 1 K for NH and around 250 mK for OH.

• 出版日期2013-11-12