Molecular collisions:From near-cold to ultra-cold

In the past two decades,the revolutionary technologies of creating cold and ultracold molecules have provided cutting-edge experiments for studying the fundamental phenomena of collision physics.To a large degree,the recent explosion of interest in the molecular collisions has been sparked by dramatic progress of experimental capabilities and theoretical methods,which permit molecular collisions to be explored deep in the quantum mechanical limit.Tremendous experimental advances in the field have already been achieved,and the authors,from an experimental perspective,provide a review of these studies for exploring the nature of molecular collisions occurring at temperatures ranging from the Kelvin to the nanoKelvin regime,as well as for applications of producing ultracold molecules.

Loss of cold atoms due to collisions with residual gases in free flight in a magneto-optical trap

The loss rate of cold atoms in a trap due to residual gas collisions differs from that in a free state after the cold atoms are released from the trap. In this paper, the loss rate in a cold rubidium-87 atom cloud was measured in a magneto-optical trap （MOT） and during its free flight. The residual gas pressure was analyzed by a residual gas analyzer, and the pressure distribution in a vacuum chamber was numerically calculated by the angular coefficient method. The decay factor, which describes the decay behavior of cold atoms due to residual gas collisions during a free flight, was calculated. It was found that the decay factor agrees well with theoretical predictions under various vacuum conditions.

Corona Discharge Ion Mobility Spectrometry of Ten Alcohols

Ion mobility spectra for ten alcohols have been studied in an ion mobility spectrometry apparatus equipped with a corona discharge ionization source. Using protonated water cluster ions as the reactant ions and clean air as the drift gas, the alcohols exhibit different product ion characteristic peaks in their ion mobility spectra. The detection limit for these alcohols is at low concentration pmol/L level according to the concentration calibration by exponential dilution method. Based on the measured ion mobilities, several chemical physics parameters of the ion-molecular interaction at atmosphere were obtained, including the ionic collision cross sections, diffusion coefficients, collision rate constants, and the ionic radii under the hard-sphere model approximation.

Ab initio calculation on accurate analytic potential energy functions and harmonic frequencies of c^3∑g^＋ and B^1-Пu states of dimer 7Li2

The comparison between single-point energy scanning （SPES） and geometry optimization （OPT） in determining the equilibrium geometries of c^3∑g^＋ and B^1-Пu states of dimer 7Li2 is made at numerous basis sets by using a symmetryadapted-cluster configuration-interaztion （SAC-CI） method in the Gaussian 03 program package. In this paper the difference of the equilibrium geometries obtained by SPES and by OPT is reported. The results obtained by SPES are found to be more reasonable than those obtained by OPT in full active space at the present SAC-CI level of theory. And the conclusion is attained that the cc-PVTZ is a most suitable basis set for these states. The calculated dissociation energies and equilibrium geometries are 0.8818 eV and 0.3090 nm for c^3∑g^＋ state, and 0.3668 eV and 0.2932 nm for B^1-Пu state respectively. The potential energy curves are calculated over a wide internuclear distance range from about 2.5α0 to 37α0 and have a least-squares fit into the Murrell-Sorbie function. According to the calculated analytic potential energy functions, the harmonic frequencies （We） and other spectroscopic data （ωeXe, Be and αe） are calculated. Comparison of the theoretical determinations at present work with the experiments and other theories clearly shows that the present work is the most complete effort and thus represents an improvement over previous theoretical results.

Total cross sections for electrons scattering from simple molecules containing the larger atom sulfur at 30-5000eV

A complex optical model potential modified by the concept of bonded atom, which takes into consideration the overlapping effect of electron clouds, is employed to calculate the total cross sections for electrons scattering from simple molecules （SO2, H2S, OCS, CS2 and SO3） containing the larger atom, sulfur, at 30-5000eV by using the additivity rule model at Hartree-Fock level. The quantitative molecular total cross section results are compared with those obtained in experiments and other calculations wherever available, and good agreement is obtained. It is shown that the additivity rule model together with the complex optical model potential modified by the concept of bonded atom can give the results closer to the experiments than the one unmodified by it. So, the introduction of bonded-atom concept in complex optical model potential betters the accuracy of the total cross section calculations of electrons from the molecules containing the larger atom, sulfur.

A modification potential method of calculating total cross sections of electrons scattering from complex molecules C2H6, C2F6, C6H6 and C6F6 at 100 eV-5000 eV

A complex optical model potential modified by incorporating the concept of bonded atom, which takes into consideration the overlapping effect of electron clouds between two atoms in a molecule, is first employed to calculate the total cross sections for electrons scattering from such complex molecules as C2H6, C2F6, C6H6 and C6F6 using the aclditivity rule model at Hartree-Fock level over the energy range from 100 eV to 5000 eV. The total cross sections are quantitatively compared with those obtained by experiments wherever available, and they are in good agreement with each other over a wide energy range. It is shown that the modified potential together with the additivity rule model is completely suitable for the calculation of total cross sections of electrons scattering from such complex molecules as C2H6, C2F6, C6H6 and C6F6 above 200 eV-300 eV.

A Correlation Potential Method for Electron Scattering Total Cross Section Calculations on Several Diatomic and Polyatomic Molecules over Energy Range 10～5000eV

A complex optical model potential correlated by the concept of bonded atom, which considers the overlapping effect of electron clouds between two atoms in a molecule, is firstly employed to calculate the total cross sections for electron scattering on several molecules (NH3, H2O, CH4, CO, N2, O2, and C2H4) over the energy range 10 ～ 5000 eV using the additivity rule model at Hartree-Fock level. The difference between the bonded atom and the free one in states is that the overlapping effect of electron clouds of bonded atoms in a molecule is considered. The quantitative total cross sections are compared with the experimental data and with the other calculations wherever available and good agreement is obtained over the energy range 10 ～ 5000 eV. It is shown that the correlated calculations are much closer to the available experimental data than the uncorrelated ones at lower energies, especially below 500 eV. Therefore,considering the overlapping effect of electron clouds in the complex optical model potential could be helpful for the better accuracy of the total cross section calculations of electron scattering from molecules.

A Modified Potential Method for Electrons Scattering Total Cross Section Calculations on Several Molecules at 30 ～ 5000 eV： CF4, CCl4, CFCl3, CF2Cl2, and CF3Cl

A complex optical model potential modified by the concept of bonded atom, which takes into consideration the overlapping effect of electron clouds between two atoms in a molecule, is employed to calculate the total cross sections （TCS5） for electrons scattering from several molecules （CF4, CCl4, CFCl3, CF2 Cl2, and CF3 Cl） over an incident energy range 30 - 5000 eV using the additivity rule model at Hartre-Fock level. The quantitative TCS5 are compared with those obtained by experiments and other theories wherever available, and good agreement is obtained above 100 eV. It is shown that the modified potential can successfully calculate the TCS5 of electron-molecule scattering over a wide energy range, especially at lower energies.