Photoinduced Two-Body Loss of Ultracold Molecules
Abstract
The lifetime of nonreactive ultracold bialkali gases was conjectured to be limited by sticky collisions amplifying three-body loss. We show that the sticking times were previously overestimated and do not support this hypothesis. We find that electronic excitation of NaK +NaK collision complexes by the trapping laser leads to the experimentally observed two-body loss. We calculate the excitation rate with a quasiclassical, statistical model employing ab initio potentials and transition dipole moments. Using longer laser wavelengths or repulsive box potentials may suppress the losses.
- Publication:
-
Physical Review Letters
- Pub Date:
- September 2019
- DOI:
- 10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.123402
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1905.06846
- Bibcode:
- 2019PhRvL.123l3402C
- Keywords:
-
- Physics - Atomic Physics;
- Condensed Matter - Quantum Gases
- E-Print:
- Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 123402 (2019)