International Workshop on Atomic Interactions in Laser Fields - Abstracts


Cold collisions between laser-cooled magnesium atoms

Kalle-Antti Suominen

Helsinki Institute of Physics, PL 9, 00014 Helsingin yliopisto, Finland

 

I discuss the physics of cold atomic collisions in the presence of near-resonant light, and show the benefits of studying these processes with magnesium atoms instead of e.g. alkali atoms. The lack of extensive hyperfine structure in magnesium makes it possible to prepare theoretical predictions that can be directly tested against experimental data when such data becomes available.

The main feature of the collision processes is heating and loss of trapped and laser-cooled atoms. The spontaneous emission plays a role in the highly inelastic collisions. Theoretical studies of these collisions have been extensive for alkali atoms [1,2], but the first study for alkaline earth atoms appeared only recently [3].

References

  1. K.-A. Suominen, J. Phys. B 29, 5981 ( 1996).
  2. J. Weiner et al., Rev. Mod. Phys. 71, 1 (1999).
  3. M. Machholm, P.S. Julienne and K.-A. Suominen, Phys. Rev. A 59, R4113 (1999).