No evaporative cooling of nitric oxide in its ground state

Abstract

Cold collisions of (NO)-N-14-O-16 molecules in the (2)Pi(1/2) ground state, subject to electric and magnetic fields, are investigated. It is found that elastic collision rates significantly exceed state-changing inelastic rates only at temperatures above 0.5 K at laboratory-strength fields.

It is found, however, that in very large fields, >10(4) V/cm, inelastic rates can be somewhat suppressed. Magnetic fields have a negligible influence on scattering for this nearly nonmagnetic state.

Keywords

• chemical-reactions
• diatomic molecule
• scattering
• collisions
• spectrum
• energy