Dissociation and Decay of Ultra-cold Sodium Molecules

TL;DR

This paper investigates the dissociation dynamics of ultracold sodium molecules by magnetic field ramps, revealing non-linear dissociation energy dependence and characterizing inelastic collisions, providing insights into atom-molecule interactions.

Contribution

It introduces a method to measure atom-molecule coupling strength through magnetic field ramping and characterizes inelastic collision processes in ultracold sodium molecules.

Findings

Dissociation energy depends non-linearly on ramp speed.

Atom-molecule coupling strength is directly measured.

Inelastic collision rates are characterized.

Abstract

The dissociation of ultracold molecules is studied by ramping an external magnetic field through a Feshbach resonance. The observed dissociation energy shows non-linear dependence on the ramp speed and directly yields the strength of the atom-molecule coupling. In addition, inelastic molecule-molecule and molecule-atom collisions are characterized.