Collisions in a dual-species magneto-optical trap of molecules and atoms

Abstract

We study inelastic collisions between CaF molecules and ⁸⁷Rb atoms in a dual-species magneto-optical trap. The presence of atoms increases the loss rate of molecules from the trap. By measuring the loss rates and density distributions, we determine a collisional loss rate coefficient k₂ = (1.43 ± 0.29) × 10‾¹⁰cm³/s at a temperature of 2.4 mK. We show that this is not substantially changed by light-induced collisions or by varying the populations of excited-state atoms and molecules. The observed loss rate is close to the universal rate expected in the presence of fast loss at short range, and can be explained by rotation-changing collisions in the ground electronic state.