Orateur
Description
We study the interactions between two Rb atoms and one Rb$^+$ ion from a quantum chemistry perspective, considering the Rb$_2$+Rb$^+$ and Rb$_2^+$+Rb arrangements. These interactions are relevant for the fundamental chemistry, sympathetic cooling, and three-body recombination (TBR) processes at ultra-low temperatures observed in hybrid ion-atom experiments for homo- and hetero-alkali ion-atom species, with Rb$^+$ (or Ba$^+$, Ca$^+$)+Rb+Rb. Formation of Rb$_2^+$ has recently been observed in inelastic collisions of a single cold Rb$^+$ in a BEC of Rb atoms [1,2]. Another experiment has reported probable formation of molecular Rb$_2$ in an hybrid ion-atom trap [3]. We start by calculating the electronic structure of the Rb$_3^+$ ion using various approaches involving both large-core and small-core effective core potentials. We find that for specific geometry configurations, state-selective charge exchange reactions would occur for the ion-molecule Rb$^{+}$+Rb$_2$ system. We extend our investigations toward the large distance domain to elaborate on the transition from atom-molecule to three-atom configurations relevant to TBR, which could be responsible for molecular collision products Rb$_2^+$ and Rb$_2$. We show the generalization of these results for any alkali homo-nuclear three-body ion-molecule and ion-atom-atom systems.
Supported by the COCOTRAMOS project (Grant No. ANR-21-CE30-0060-01 “Agence Nationale de la Recherche”).
References
[1] T. Dieterle, M. Berngruber, C. H\"{o}lzl, R. L\"{o}w, K. Jachymski, T. Pfau, and F. Meinert, Phys. Rev. Lett. 126, 033401 (2021)
[2] T. Dieterle, M. Berngruber, C. H\"{o}lzl, R. L\"{o}w, K. Jachymski, T. Pfau, and F. Meinert, Phys. Rev. A 102, 041301 (2020).
[3] A. H\"{a}rter, A. Kr\"{u}kow, A. Brunner, W. Schnitzler, S. Schmid, and J. H. Denschlag, Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 123201 (2012).
| Affiliation de l'auteur principal | Laboratoire Aimé Cotton, CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay, Orsay, France |
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