# Quasi-1D ultracold rigid-rotor collisions : reactive and non-reactive cases

## TL;DR

This paper investigates how quasi-1D confinement and electric fields influence ultracold polar molecule collisions, showing that long-range repulsive interactions can suppress reactive and loss processes, aiding experimental control.

## Contribution

It introduces a model for polar molecule collisions in quasi-1D traps considering rigid rotors and compares it to the fixed-dipole approximation, highlighting loss suppression mechanisms.

## Key findings

- Long-range repulsive interactions suppress short-range reactive processes.
- Electric field-induced dipoles can prevent two-body reactions.
- Shielding effect reduces loss rates in ultracold molecule experiments.

## Abstract

We study polar alkali dimer scattering in a quasi-1D geometry for both reactive and non-reactive species. Elastic and reactive rates are computed as a function of the amplitude of a static electric field within a purely long-range model with suitable boundary conditions at shorter range. We describe the diatomic molecules as rigid rotors and results are compared to the fixed-dipole approximation. We show in particular that for molecules with a sufficiently strong induced dipole moment oriented perpendicular to the trap axis, the long-range repulsive interaction leads to the suppression of short-range processes. Such shielding effect occurs for both reactive and non-reactive molecules, preventing two-body reactions as well as losses due to "sticky processes" [Phys. Rev. A 85, 062712 (2012)] from occurring. The present results demonstrate the possibility to suppress loss rates in current ultracold molecule experiments using 1D confinement.