Direct measurement of fine structure changing collisional losses in cold trapped ⁸⁵Rb

Abstract:

Using a technique that consists in ionizing atoms out of the 5P _1/2 fragments originated in the cold collision process, we have measured the contribution of the fine structure changing collision (FS) to the total trap loss rate of cold ⁸⁵Rb. Our results show that FS contribution is responsible for about 4% of the total trap loss. This result should stimulate new theoretical discussions involving exoergic cold collisions.