Year: 2001
Type: article
Abstract: We have observed thermalization by elastic collisions of magnetically trapped metastable helium atoms. Our method directly samples the reconstruction of a thermal energy distribution after the application of a RF knife. The relaxation time of our sample toward equilibrium gives an elastic collision rate constant of $\ensuremath{\alpha}\ensuremath{\sim}5\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}9} {\mathrm{cm}}^{3}/\mathrm{s}$ at a temperature of 1 mK. This value is close to the unitarity limit.
Source: Physical Review A
Authors: A. Browaeys, A. Robert, O. Sirjean, J. Poupard, S. Nowak, D. Boiron, C. I. Westbrook, A. Aspect
Language: English
Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2042943739