Determination of the Scattering Lengths of 39K from 1u Photoassociation Lineshapes

Published

December 1, 1999

Author(s)

Carl J. Williams, Eite Tiesinga, Paul S. Julienne, H Wang, W C. Stwalley, P L. Gould

Abstract

We report threshold scattering properties for ³⁹K(f = 1) atoms obtained from analysis of experimental photoassociation spectra of the purely long-range ³⁹K₂1_u state. The existence of hyperfine structure in the excited K₂ 1_u state and a knowledge of the Hamiltonian structure for two colliding ground state alkali atoms enables us to obtain information on the sign and magnitudes of certain scattering lengths for ground state collisions. Analysis of the experimental photoassociation lineshapes shows that the ³⁹K scattering lengths are between -3.2 nm and +0.8 nm (-60a_o and + 5a_o, where 1a_o = 1 a.u. = 0.0529177 nm) for the a³ς_u⁺ molecular state, between +4.8 nm and +12 nm (+ 90a_o and + 230a_o) for the X¹ ς⁺_g state, and between - 7.9 and + 1.1 nm (-150a_o and + 20a_o) for collisions of two f= 1.m -1 atoms.

Citation

Physical Review A (Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics)

Volume

60

Issue

No. 6

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

ground state, lineshape, photoassociation spectroscopy, potassium, pure long range state, scattering length

Citation

Williams, C. , Tiesinga, E. , Julienne, P. , Wang, H. , Stwalley, W. and Gould, P. (1999), Determination of the Scattering Lengths of ³⁹K from 1_u Photoassociation Lineshapes, Physical Review A (Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics) (Accessed October 11, 2025)