Ultracold Collisions in an Atom-Ion Hybrid System

Abstract

We report an experimental study of ultracold collisions between atomic ions and neutral atoms. The atom-ion interactions in a hybrid trap, where a RF Paul trap and an optical dipole trap are combined, are investigated. We characterized the collisional properties of elastic and inelastic collisions between Ca⁺ ions and Li atoms by determining the cross sections in a milli kelvin temperature.