Rotational excitation in sympathetic cooling of diatomic molecular ions by laser-cooled atomic ions (2410.22458v1)

Abstract: Sympathetic cooling of molecular ions through the Coulomb interaction with laser-cooled atomic ions is an efficient tool to prepare translationally cold molecules. Even at relatively high collisional energies of about 1eV (T$\sim$10000K), the nearest approach in the ion-ion collisions never gets closer than $\sim$1nm such that naively perturbations of the internal molecular state are not expected. The Coulomb field may, however, induce rotational transitions changing the purity of initially quantum state prepared molecules. Here, we use estimates of rotational state changes in collisions of diatomic ions with atomic ions (arXiv:1905.02130) and determine the overall rotational excitation accumulated over the sympathetic cooling. We also estimate the cooling time, considering both a single atomic ion and a Coulomb crystal of atomic ions.