Abstract

Cold collisions are a limiting process in obtaining high-density samples of cold atoms in traps. The suppression of inelastic col- lisional effects may be an alternative for the attainment of dense ultracold atomic samples. Suppression of the inelastic process works by preventing the colliding atoms from reaching small interatomic distances at which the inelastic process can take place. To obtain such a situation, one can excite the colliding partners to a repulsive state, forcing them to reverse their motion and fly apart from each other.

© 1995 Optical Society of America