| Abstract: | Collisions between electrostatically trapped molecules in the J = 0 state are theoretically investigated. Molecules in this state are advantageous for the evaporative cooling, because inelastic collision is impossible at ultra-low temperature. However, inelastic collision is more significant than elastic collision at high temperature, because the off-diagonal dipole matrix elements are much larger than the diagonal elements. The elastic and inelastic collision cross-sections are calculated under the condition that the collisional kinetic energy is larger than the energy gap between the rotational states. The dependencies of the collision cross-sections on the collisional kinetic energy and molecular constants are examined.Received: 29 July 2004, Published online: 21 September 2004PACS: 31.15.Qg Molecular dynamics and other numerical methods - 33.80.Ps Optical cooling of molecules; trapping - 33.90. + h Other topics in molecular properties and interactions with photons |
