Index of refraction for cold lithium- and diatomic sodium waves traveling through cold noble gases |
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Authors: | H Bjørgen M Lysebo L Veseth |
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Institution: | (1) Departments of Anatomy & Neurobiology and Biochemistry, Boston University School of Medicine, 715 Albany Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02118-2526, USA |
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Abstract: | In the present paper we propose to measure the index of refraction
for diatomic sodium molecules traveling through a cold helium gas. Theoretical
calculations of the index of refraction for this system are presented as a
function of the molecule velocity and atom gas temperature. Whereas previous
theoretical efforts to compute the refractive index have been concerned with
atomic systems and atomic matter waves, we extend the investigation to diatomic
molecules in the present work. To enable such calculations the potential energy
surface for the atom-molecule interaction is calculated ab initio, along with
the long range dispersion coefficients for the atom-molecule system. The full
close-coupled equations, describing the atom-molecule collisions, are solved
numerically to work out the influence of the collisions on the matter waves. We
investigate the sensitivity of the results upon changes and inaccuracies in the
potential energy surface. Several molecular rotational levels are included in
the present study, and the index of refraction is found to depend on the
rotational state. In addition, the index of refraction for atomic lithium
matter waves traveling through the cold noble gases helium and argon are
computed, motivated by a recent experiment with atomic lithium matter waves.
Different resonances (glory- and scattering resonances) are identified from the
results. Such resonances offer an important opportunity for the comparison of
experiment and theory. |
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