Vibrational cooling of spin-stretched dimer states by He buffer gas: quantum calculations for Li2(aΣu+3) at ultralow energies

The interaction between the triplet state of the lithium dimer, 7Li2, with 4He is obtained from accurate ab initio calculations where the vibrational dependence of the potential is newly computed. Vibrational quenching dynamics within a coupled-channel quantum treatment is carried out at ultralow energies, and large differences in efficiency as a function of the initial vibrational state of the targets are found as one compares the triplet results with those of the singlet state of the same target. © 2008 American Institute of Physics