High-energy-resolution measurements of an ultracold-atom-ion collisional cross section

The cross section of a given process fundamentally quantifies the probability for that process to occur. In the quantum regime of low energies, the cross section can greatly vary with collision energy due to quantum effects. Here, we report on a method to directly measure the atom-ion collisional cross section in the energy range of 0.2-12 mK ×k_B , by shuttling ultracold atoms trapped in an optical-lattice across a radio-frequency trapped ion. Using this method, the average number of atom-ion collisions per experiment is below one, such that the energy resolution is not limited by the broad (power-law) steady-state atom-ion energy distribution. Here, we estimate that the energy resolution is below 200 μ K ×k_B , limited by drifts in the ion's excess micromotion compensation and can be reduced to the tens of μ K ×k_B regime. This resolution is one order-of-magnitude better than previous experiments measuring cold atom-ion collisional cross-section energy dependence. We used our method to measure the energy dependence of the inelastic collision cross sections of a nonadiabatic electronic-excitation-exchange (EEE) and spin-orbit change (SOC) processes. We found that, in the measured energy range, the EEE and SOC cross sections statistically agree with the classical Langevin cross section. This method allows for measuring the cross sections of various inelastic processes and opens the possibility to search for atom-ion quantum signatures such as shape resonances.