Electric-field-induced inelastic collisions between magnetically trapped hydroxyl radicals

Abstract

Inelastic collisions are observed between magnetically trapped neutral hydroxyl (OH•) radicals at a temperature of 45 mK in the presence of an electric field. The collision rate is measured over a range of electric fields from 0.2 to 10 kV/cm. However, the two-body collision rates must be deconvolved from a novel electric-field induced non-adiabatic single particle loss, which arises from Landau–Zener crossings between energy surfaces at the plane where the electric field vector is transverse to the trapping magnetic field. The observed inelastic collision rate follows an approximate quadratic power law in the effective dipole moment.