Ultracold 87Rb Ground-State Hyperfine-Changing Collisions in the Presence and Absence of Laser Light

Published

September 1, 2000

Author(s)

S D. Gensemer, P L. Gould, P J. Leo, Eite Tiesinga, Carl J. Williams

Abstract

We have measured the rate of hyperfine-changing collisions between ground-state 87Rb atoms in a magneto-optical trap. Using a population switching technique, we are able to directly measure the rate of these collisions in the dark. In the presence of near-resonant trapping laser light, we observe a dramatic enhancement of the trap loss collision rate. Measurements made in the dark over a range of temperatures show a ground state hyperfine changing collision rate which increases with increasing temperature. There is consistency between this latter measured rate and theoretical calculations constrained by experiments on Bose-Einstein condensates and spectroscopy.

Citation

Physical Review A (Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics)

Volume

62

Issue

No. 3

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

scattering lengths, ultracold collisions

Citation

Gensemer, S. , Gould, P. , Leo, P. , Tiesinga, E. and Williams, C. (2000), Ultracold ⁸⁷Rb Ground-State Hyperfine-Changing Collisions in the Presence and Absence of Laser Light, Physical Review A (Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics) (Accessed May 10, 2024)