Enhanced Cooling of Hydrogen Atoms by Lithium Atoms

Abstract

We present calculated scattering lengths for collisions between various isotopic forms of lithium and hydrogen atoms interacting via singlet and triplet molecular states of LiH. We demonstrate that one bound triplet level is supported for each isotopomer 7LiH, 6LiH, 7LiD, and 6LiD. We obtain large calculated triplet scattering lengths that are stable against uncertainties in the potential. We present elastic and momentum transfer cross sections, and the corresponding rate coefficients, for hydrogen atoms colliding with 7Li atoms. We suggest that enhanced cooling of trapped atomic hydrogen by 7Li atoms is feasible.