Scattering lengths of calcium and barium isotopes

TL;DR

This paper calculates the s-wave scattering lengths of calcium and barium isotopes to evaluate their potential for Bose-Einstein condensation, finding limited options for calcium but promising prospects for some barium isotopes.

Contribution

It provides detailed scattering length calculations for all even isotopes of calcium and barium, highlighting their suitability for BEC experiments.

Findings

Calcium isotopes other than 40Ca are unsuitable for BEC due to large scattering lengths.

Barium isotopes exhibit a broad range of scattering lengths, enabling potential BEC.

40Ca remains the most viable calcium isotope for BEC applications.

Abstract

We have calculated the s-wave scattering length of all the even isotopes of calcium (Ca) and barium (Ba), in order to investigate the prospect of Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC). For Ca we have used an accurate molecular potential based on detailed spectroscopic data. Our calculations show that Ca does not provide other isotopes alternative to the recently Bose condensed 40Ca that suffers strong losses because of a very large scattering length. For Ba we show by using a model potential that the even isotopes cover a broad range of scattering lengths, opening the possibility of BEC for at least one of the isotopes.