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Updated: Jul 2, 2026

Spatial Separation of Molecular Conformers and Clusters
Published on: January 9, 2014
Suppression of inelastic collisions between polar molecules with a repulsive shield
A V Gorshkov1, P Rabl, G Pupillo
1Physics Department, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
Abstract:
We propose and analyze a technique that allows one to suppress inelastic collisions and simultaneously enhance elastic interactions between cold polar molecules. The main idea is to cancel the leading dipole-dipole interaction with a suitable combination of static electric and microwave fields in such a way that the remaining van der Waals-type potential forms a three-dimensional repulsive shield. We analyze the elastic and inelastic scattering cross sections relevant for evaporative cooling of polar molecules and discuss the prospect for the creation of stable crystalline structures.
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