Atomic Rydberg Reservoirs for Polar Molecules

TL;DR

This paper proposes using laser-dressed Rydberg atoms as engineered reservoirs to control and cool polar molecules through elastic and inelastic collisions, enabling rapid thermalization from millikelvin to microkelvin temperatures.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method of using laser admixed Rydberg levels in cold atomic gases to facilitate controlled elastic and inelastic collisions with polar molecules.

Findings

Large elastic scattering cross sections enable effective shielding.

Inelastic collisions can dissipate energy via photon emission.

Rapid cooling of molecules from mK to μK temperatures is achievable.

Abstract

We discuss laser dressed dipolar and Van der Waals interactions between atoms and polar molecules, so that a cold atomic gas with laser admixed Rydberg levels acts as a designed reservoir for both elastic and inelastic collisional processes. The elastic scattering channel is characterized by large elastic scattering cross sections and repulsive shields to protect from close encounter collisions. In addition, we discuss a dissipative (inelastic) collision where a spontaneously emitted photon carries away (kinetic) energy of the collision partners, thus providing a significant energy loss in a single collision. This leads to the scenario of rapid thermalization and cooling of a molecule in the mK down to the \mu K regime by cold atoms.