Rotational cooling of Li2(1Σg+) molecules by ultracold collisions with a helium gas buffer

The very weak interaction of Li2 with He atoms has been obtained from accurate ab initio calculations and is here analyzed in terms of its anisotropic features. Quantum scattering calculations of the rotational inelastic de-excitation cross sections are carried out using a recently proposed multichannel treatment, the modified variable phase method, implemented by the authors and applied here to ultralow collision energies. General conclusions on the low efficiency of a He buffer gas in cooling down molecular rotations in this system are presented and analyzed.