Heteronuclear collisions between laser-cooled metastable neon atoms

Abstract

We investigate heteronuclear collisions in isotope mixtures of laser-cooled metastable 3P2 neon. Experiments are performed with spin-polarized atoms in a magnetic trap for all two-isotope combinations of the stable neon isotopes 20Ne, 21Ne, and 22Ne. We determine the rate coefficients for heteronuclear ionizing collisions to beta_{21,20}=(3.9+/-2.7) x 10^{-11} cm^3/s, beta_{22,20}=(2.6+/-0.7) x 10^{-11} cm^3/s, and beta_{21,22}=(3.9+/-1.9) x 10^{-11} cm^3/s. We also study heteronuclear elastic collision processes and give upper bounds for heteronuclear thermal relaxation cross sections. This work significantly extends the limited available experimental data on heteronuclear ionizing collisions for laser-cooled atoms involving one or more rare gas atoms in a metastable state.