# Energy scaling of cold atom-atom-ion three-body recombination

Source: [Energy scaling of cold atom-atom-ion three-body recombination](<https://www.sota2.com/research/paper/68fa336e1e209131ce8905cc>)

Collection index: [llms.txt](<https://www.sota2.com/research/llms.txt>)

Data updated: 2025-10-24T20:04:41.270Z

Authors: Artjom Kr\\"ukow, Amir Mohammadi, Arne H\\"arter, Johannes Hecker Denschlag, Jes\\'us P\\'erez-R\\'ios, Chris H. Greene

Published: 2015-10-16T16:36:07.000Z

## Abstract

We study three-body recombination of Ba$^+$ + Rb + Rb in the mK regime where a single $^{138}$Ba$^{+}$ ion in a Paul trap is immersed into a cloud of ultracold $^{87}$Rb atoms. We measure the energy dependence of the three-body rate coefficient $k\_3$ and compare the results to the theoretical prediction, $k\_3 \\propto E\_{\\textrm{col}}^{-3/4}$ where $E\_{\\textrm{col}}$ is the collision energy. We find agreement if we assume that the non-thermal ion energy distribution is determined by at least two different micro-motion induced energy scales. Furthermore, using classical trajectory calculations we predict how the median binding energy of the formed molecules scales with the collision energy. Our studies give new insights into the kinetics of an ion immersed into an ultracold atom cloud and yield important prospects for atom-ion experiments targeting the s-wave regime.

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## Original sources and implementation

[Original paper](<https://arxiv.org/abs/1510.04938>)

[PDF](<https://arxiv.org/pdf/1510.04938.pdf>)