Abstract

Hydrogen is of critical importance in atomic and molecular physics and the development of a simple and efficient technique for trapping cold and ultracold hydrogen atoms would be a significant advance. In this study we simulate a recently proposed trap-loading mechanism for trapping hydrogen atoms released from a neon matrix. Accurate ab initio quantum calculations are reported of the neon-hydrogen interaction potential and the energy- and angular-dependent elastic scattering cross sections that control the energy transfer of initially cold atoms are obtained. They are then used to construct the Boltzmann kinetic equation, describing the energy relaxation process. Numerical solutions of the Boltzmann equation predict the time evolution of the hydrogen energy distribution function. Based on the simulations we discuss the prospects of the technique.