Abstract
In collisions between ultracold atoms, the potential energy associated with the long-range (R3) resonant dipole interaction can overwhelm thermal energies, even for internuclear separations R > 100 nm. As a result, collisional trajectories can be significantly altered by near-resonant laser excitation. When excitation of very slow atoms occurs at long range, it is quite likely that the excitation decays before the atoms reach short range. Even though such an aborted collision does not lead directly to an inelastic trap loss process, the atoms are accelerated and deflected, increasing the chance that a second laser, tuned to excite the atoms at short range, will lead to ejection. The net result is a collisional loss rate in the presence of both lasers that exceeds the sum of the loss rates that are due to each laser acting alone. This type of cooperative effect must be considered when interpreting any ultracold collision experiment.
© 1997 Optical Society of America
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