Quadratic collisional loss rate of aLi7trap

Abstract

We report a measurement of the quadratic collisional loss rate coefficient β of a ${}_{}{}^7{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{Li}$ trap as a function of the trap potential in a range covering the energy of the fine-structure splitting ${}_{}{}^2{}_{}{}^{}$ ${\mathit{P}}_{3/2\mathrm{-}}^2$ ${\mathit{P}}_{1/2}$. The value of β decreases an order of magnitude when the trap potential is increased beyond 0.24 K, and reaches the minimum value of 3×${10}^{\mathrm{-}13}$ ${\mathrm{cm}}^3$ ${\mathrm{s}}^{\mathrm{-}1}$ at 0.45 K. At a higher trap potential the β increases proportionally to the trap potential.