Abstract
Merging an beam with velocity matched electrons in a heavy ion storage ring we observed rapid cooling of the rotational excitations of the ions by superelastic collisions (SEC) with the electrons. The cooling process is well described using theoretical SEC rate coefficients obtained by combining the molecular -matrix approach with the adiabatic nuclei rotation approximation. We verify the SEC rate coefficients, which are predicted to be dominant as opposed to the rates and to amount to for initial angular momentum states with , to within 30%.
- Received 27 February 2009
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.223202
©2009 American Physical Society