Sympathetic cooling of fluorine atoms with ultracold atomic hydrogen

González-Martínez, M.L.; Hutson, Jeremy M.

Abstract

We consider the prospect of using ultracold hydrogen atoms for sympathetic cooling of fluorine atoms to microkelvin temperatures. We carry out quantum-mechanical calculations on collisions between cold F and H atoms in magnetically trappable states and show that the ratio of elastic to inelastic cross sections remains high across a wide range of temperatures and magnetic fields. For F atoms initially in the spin-stretched state (2P3/2, f = mf = +2), sympathetic cooling appears likely to succeed from starting temperatures around 1 K or even higher. This occurs because inelastic collisions are suppressed by p-wave and d-wave barriers that are 600 mK and 3.2 K high, respectively. In combination with recent results on H + NH and H + OH collisions [M. L. González-Martínez and J. M. Hutson, Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 203004 (2013)], this establishes ultracold H atoms as a very promising and versatile coolant for atoms and molecules that cannot be laser-cooled.

Citation

González-Martínez, M., & Hutson, J. M. (2013). Sympathetic cooling of fluorine atoms with ultracold atomic hydrogen. Physical Review A, 88(5), Article 053420. https://doi.org/10.1103/physreva.88.053420

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Nov 1, 2013
• Deposit Date: Jan 13, 2014
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 24, 2014
• Journal: Physical Review A
• Print ISSN: 1050-2947
• Electronic ISSN: 1094-1622
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 88
• Issue: 5
• Article Number: 053420
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/physreva.88.053420