title: Cold heteromolecular dipolar collisions.
abstract: Cold molecules promise to reveal a rich set of novel collision dynamics in the low-energy regime. By combining for the first time the techniques of Stark deceleration, magnetic trapping, and cryogenic buffer gas cooling, we present the first experimental observation of cold collisions between two different species of state-selected neutral polar molecules. This has enabled an absolute measurement of the total trap loss cross sections between OH and ND(3) at a mean collision energy of 3.6 cm(-1) (5 K). Due to the dipolar interaction, the total cross section increases upon application of an external polarizing electric field. Cross sections computed from ab initio potential energy surfaces are in agreement with the measured value at zero external electric field. The theory presented here represents the first such analysis of collisions between a (2)Π radical and a closed-shell polyatomic molecule.
authors: JILA, National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Colorado, Department of Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309-0440, USA. bsawyer@nist.gov
authors: Brian C
authors: BC
authors: Sawyer
authors: Benjamin K
authors: BK
authors: Stuhl
authors: Mark
authors: M
authors: Yeo
authors: Timur V
authors: TV
authors: Tscherbul
authors: Matthew T
authors: MT
authors: Hummon
authors: Yong
authors: Y
authors: Xia
authors: Jacek
authors: J
authors: Kłos
authors: David
authors: D
authors: Patterson
authors: John M
authors: JM
authors: Doyle
authors: Jun
authors: J
authors: Ye