Collisional properties of cold spin-polarized nitrogen gas: Theory, experiment, and prospects as a sympathetic coolant for trapped atoms and molecules

Abstract

fields (10 mT to 2 T). The calculated dipolar relaxation rates are insensitive to small variations of the interaction potential and to the magnitude of the spin-exchange interaction, enabling the accurate calibration of the measured N atom density. We find consistency between the calculated and experimentally determined rates. Our results suggest that N atoms are promising candidates for future experiments on sympathetic cooling of molecules.

Publication
Physical Review A