Rydberg atom-ion collisions in cold environments

TL;DR

This paper theoretically investigates low-energy Rydberg atom-ion collisions, identifying suitable dynamical regimes and using a quasi-classical approach to analyze charge exchange cross sections at temperatures down to 1 K.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive analysis of Rydberg atom-ion collision regimes and applies a quasi-classical trajectory method to compute charge exchange cross sections at ultracold temperatures.

Findings

Charge exchange cross section deviates from n^4 scaling at low energies.

Classical treatment is valid at the lowest temperatures reachable.

Ionic core-repulsion influences collision dynamics.

Abstract

Low-energy collisions of Rydberg atom-ion systems are investigated theoretically. We present the parameter space associated with suitable approaches for the dynamics of Rydberg atom-ion collisions, i.e. quantum-, Langevin and classical exchange regimes, showing that for the lowest reachable temperatures a classical treatment is appropriate. A quasi-classical trajectory method is used to study charge exchange cross sections for Li$^*$-Li$^+$ and Li$^*$-Cs$^+$ at collision energies down to $1\,$K. For cold collisions we find the charge exchange cross section deviating from the $n^4$ geometric scaling. Furthermore, for low-energy collisions, we find both an influence of the ionic core-repulsion as well as variations for two different models used for describing the electron-core potential.