Enhanced cooling of hydrogen atoms by lithium atoms

We present calculated scattering lengths for collisions between various isotopic forms of lithium and hydrogen atoms interacting via singlet and triplet molecular states of LiH. We demonstrate that one bound triplet level is supported for each isotopomer ⁷LiH, ⁶LiH, ⁷LiD, and ⁶LiD. We obtain large calculated triplet scattering lengths that are stable against uncertainties in the potential. We present elastic and momentum transfer cross sections, and the corresponding rate coefficients, for hydrogen atoms colliding with ⁷Li atoms. We suggest that enhanced cooling of trapped atomic hydrogen by ⁷Li atoms is feasible.