Cold interactions between an Yb+ ion and a Li atom: Prospects for sympathetic cooling, radiative association, and Feshbach resonances

Michał Tomza, Christiane P. Koch, and Robert Moszynski
Phys. Rev. A 91, 042706 – Published 17 April 2015

Abstract

The electronic structure of the (LiYb)+ molecular ion is investigated with two variants of the coupled cluster method restricted to single, double, and noniterative or linear triple excitations. Potential-energy curves for the ground and excited states, permanent and transition electric dipole moments, and long-range interaction coefficients C4 and C6 are reported. The data are subsequently employed in scattering calculations and photoassociation studies. Feshbach resonances are shown to be measurable, despite the ion's micromotion in the Paul trap. Molecular ions can be formed in their singlet electronic ground state by one-photon photoassociation and in triplet states by two-photon photoassociation; and control of cold atom-ion chemistry based on Feshbach resonances should be feasible. Conditions for sympathetic cooling of an Yb+ ion by an ultracold gas of Li atoms are found to be favorable in the temperature range 10nK10mK, and further improvements using Feshbach resonances should be possible. Overall, these results suggest excellent prospects for building a quantum simulator with ultracold Yb+ ions and Li atoms.

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  • Received 3 September 2014
  • Revised 14 January 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.91.042706

©2015 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Michał Tomza1,2, Christiane P. Koch2, and Robert Moszynski1

  • 1Faculty of Chemistry, University of Warsaw, Pasteura 1, 02-093 Warsaw, Poland
  • 2Theoretische Physik, Universität Kassel, Heinrich-Plett-Strasse 40, 34132 Kassel, Germany

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Vol. 91, Iss. 4 — April 2015

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