Study of low energy Ytterbium atom-ion charge transfer collisions using a surface-electrode trap

We demonstrate a new isotope-selective system to measure low energy charge transfer collisions between ytterbium ions and atoms in the range of collisional energy from 2.2x 10-5 eV to 4.3x 10-3 eV, corresponding to effective temperature from 250 mK to 50 K. The charge transfer collisions are observed by spatially overlapping the 172yb+ ions in the surface-electrode trap and 174Yb atoms in the magneto-optical trap, and measuring ion loss. We confirm that, in the Langevin regime, the charge transfer collisional rate is independent of the collisional energy. The measured Langevin cross section is consistent with a theoretical value for the ytterbium atomic polarizability of 143 a.u., as calculated by Zhang and Dalgarno [1].

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Physics.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2008

Author dc:creator

• Pruttivarasin, Thaned

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Vladan Vultić.

• Physics.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/45339

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/45339