Collisions of trapped ions with ultracold atoms in [YbRb]+ systems

Abstract

We investigate the ultracold, elastic-scattering of a trapped atom and a trapped ion. The low-energy potential surfaces of the [174Yb- 87Rb]+ are estimated and the polarizability and higher-order multipole coefficients are obtained from ab initio calculations. The polarizability of the Ytterbium atom is well reproduced and the scattering length is estimated. The excited-state Yb+-Rb system is analysed in detail with a view to applications in hybrid ion-atom traps.