Quantum-classical model for the formation of Rydberg molecules

Abstract

A fascinating aspect of Rydberg atoms is their ability to form huge but very weakly bound molecules with a ground state atom, only held together by a scattering process between the latter and the Rydberg electron. Beyond the usual way of creating such molecules by laser excitation from two ground state atoms with a distance of less than the Rydberg radius, we demonstrate that Rydberg molecules can also be formed by capturing a ground state atom which is initially located outside the range of the Rydberg atom when it comes in contact with it. To demonstrate this effect, we investigate the scattering process between the Rydberg electron and the ground state atom within a quantum-classical framework. In this picture capturing results from a dissipative finite-mass correction term in the classical equations of motion. We show that and under which conditions the capturing takes place.

8 pages, 5 figures

References in corpus (5)

• Quantum information with Rydberg atoms
• Rydberg trimers and excited dimers bound by internal quantum reflection
• Many-body theory of excitation dynamics in an ultracold Rydberg gas
• Lifetimes of ultralong-range Rydberg molecules in vibrational ground and excited state
• Correlations of Rydberg excitations in an ultra-cold gas after an echo sequence

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Excitation of weakly-bound molecules to trilobite-like Rydberg states
• Adiabatic potential energy curves of long-range Rydberg molecules: Two-electron R-matrix approach
• Driving the formation of the RbCs dimer by a laser pulse. A nonlinear dynamics approach
• Signatures of exciton orbits in quantum mechanical recurrence spectra of Cu${}_2$O
• Quantum-classical lifetimes of Rydberg molecules
• Formation of RbCs dimers using an elliptically polarized laser pulse