Low-temperature collisions of Na2 with He

Abstract

The close coupling calculation of rotationally inelastic collision of He with Na2 is first performed by employing a recently computed ab initio potential energy surface. The process of rovibrational energy excitation and relaxation of Na2 in collision with He has been studied in detail based on the single and double exitations coupled cluster with a noniterative perturbation treatment of triple excitations CCSD （T） potential energy surface. Our results are in good agreement with the experimental results. Our results show that: （1）The elastic cross section（Δj=0） is much larger than the inelastic cross section. （2）The largest amplitude occurs at small scattering angles. At low Δj transition, the He projectile is predominantly forward scattering. Backward scattering occurs as Δj increases. （3）For inelastic cross section, the most effective transition is that with Δj=2.（4）The fast narrow diffraction oscillations in the cross sections are the obvious characteristics for the low Δj inelastic transitions, which decreases with increasing j. （5）The elastic differential-cross-sections（DCS）provides a useful visualization of rotational rainbows at low translational energy. It is beneficial to reducing the loss in molecular cooling and trapping.