Vibrational quenching and reactive processes of weakly bound molecular ions colliding with atoms at cold temperatures

Abstract

We present a study of vibrational quenching and chemical processes of molecular ions immersed in an ultracold atomic gas by means of the quasi-classical trajectory (QCT) method. In particular, BaRb$^+(v)$ + Rb collisions are studied at cold temperatures revealing a highly efficient energy transfer between the translational degrees of freedom and internal degrees of the molecular ion. Thus leading to a large vibrational quenching cross section which follows the Langevin capture model prediction. These results play a key role on the understanding of relaxation phenomena of cold molecular ions in ultracold gases as well as in the fate of the molecules emerging trough ion-neutral-neutral three-body recombination in an cold and dense environment.