Direct measurement of fine sturcture changing collisional losses in cold trapped ~(85)Rb

摘要

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 ~(85)Rb. 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.