QUANTUM SUPPRESSION OF COLLISIONAL LOSS RATES IN OPTICAL TRAPS

We present a coupled-channel study of optical collisions, restricted to a single atom-laser manifold. Outside of a resonance region around the Condon point, we find a simple representation of the solution in terms of propagating complex dressed states. The probability flux for the P-2(3/2) + S state at small interatomic distances can be interpreted in terms of two such interfering dressed states. The coupled-channel solution displays some features that have previously been obtained with semiclassical optical-Bloch-equation methods. An important quantum effect, however, is a strong reduction of atom loss rates at low collision energies that is roughly proportional to E-2.