Excitation of weakly-bound molecules to trilobite-like Rydberg states

Abstract

We observe "trilobite-like" states of ultracold 85Rb2 molecules, in which a ground-state atom is bound by the electronic wavefunction of its Rydberg-atom partner. We populate these states through the ultraviolet excitation of weakly-bound molecules, and access a regime of trilobite-like states at low principal quantum numbers and with vibrational turning points around 35 Bohr radii. This demonstrates that, unlike previous studies that used free-to-bound transitions, trilobite-like states can also be excited through bound-to-bound transitions. This approach provides high excitation probabilities without requiring high-density samples, and affords the ability to control the excitation radius by selection of the initial-state vibrational level.

4 pages, 3 figures

References in corpus (5)

• Hyperfine, rotational, and vibrational structure of the triplet ground state of Rb molecules
• Observation of blue-shifted ultralong-range Cs${}_2$ Rydberg molecules
• Experimental verification of minima in excited long-range Rydberg states of Rb_2
• Upper Bound to the Ionization Energy of 85Rb2
• Quantum-classical model for the formation of Rydberg molecules

Cited by in corpus (47)

• Production of trilobite Rydberg molecule dimers with thousand-Debye permanent electric dipole moments
• Ultracold atom-electron interaction: from two to many-body physics
• Ultracold Rydberg Molecules
• Observation of pendular butterfly Rydberg molecules
• Alignment of D-state Rydberg molecules
• Photoassociation of long-range $nD$ Rydberg molecules
• Experimental characterization of singlet scattering channels in long-range Rydberg molecules
• Ultralong-Range Rydberg Molecules in a Divalent-Atomic System
• Ultracold chemical reactions of a single Rydberg atom in a dense gas
• Probing a scattering resonance in Rydberg molecules with a Bose-Einstein condensate
• Deformation of a quantum many-particle system by a rotating impurity
• Angular-momentum couplings in long-range Rb${}_2$ Rydberg molecules
• Observation of mixed singlet-triplet Rb${}_2$ Rydberg molecules
• Trilobites, butterflies, and other exotic specimens of long-range Rydberg molecules
• Rydberg molecules for ion-atom scattering in the ultracold regime
• Long-range Rydberg-atom-ion molecules of Rb and Cs
• Lifetimes of ultra-long-range strontium Rydberg molecules
• Rydberg Electrons in a Bose-Einstein Condensate
• A comparative analysis of binding in ultralong-range Rydberg molecules
• Photo-association of trilobite Rydberg molecules via resonant spin-orbit coupling
• Deeply bound (24$D_J$ + 5$S_{1/2}$) ${}^{87}$Rb and ${}^{85}$Rb molecules for eight spin couplings
• Stretching and bending dynamics in triatomic ultralong-range Rydberg molecules
• Hybridization of Rydberg electron orbitals by molecule formation
• Controlling Rydberg atom excitations in dense background gases
• Cs nDJ Rydberg-atom macrodimers formed by long-range multipole interaction
• Heteronuclear long-range Rydberg molecules
• Polyatomic trilobite Rydberg molecules in a dense random gas
• Spectroscopy of ${}^{87}\text{Sr}$ triplet Rydberg states
• Lifetimes of ultralong-range strontium Rydberg molecules in a dense BEC
• Electromagnetically induced transparency of ultralong-range Rydberg molecules
• Observation of spin-orbit-dependent electron scattering using long-range Rydberg molecules
• Electric field-induced wave-packet dynamics and geometrical rearrangement of trilobite Rydberg molecules
• Adiabatic potential energy curves of long-range Rydberg molecules: Two-electron R-matrix approach
• Non-adiabatic decay of Rydberg-atom-ion molecules
• Non-adiabatic interaction effects in the spectra of ultralong-range Rydberg molecules
• Cesium $n{D}_J$+$6S_{1/2}$ Rydberg molecules and their permanent electric dipole moments
• Loss rates for high-$n$, $49\lesssim n\lesssim 150$, 5sns(${}^3$S${}_1$) Rydberg atoms excited in an ${}^{84}$Sr Bose-Einstein condensate
• Creation of vibrationally-excited ultralong-range Rydberg molecules in polarized and unpolarized cold gases of ${}^{87}$Sr
• Electronic structure of ultralong-range Rydberg pentaatomic molecules with two polar diatomic molecules
• High-Resolution Spectroscopy of {R}ydberg Molecular States of ${}^{85}${R}b${}_2$ Near the $5s+7p$ Asymptote
• $C_6$ coefficients for interacting Rydberg atoms and alkali-metal dimers
• $R$-matrix calculations of electron collisions with lithium atom at low energies
• Internal diffraction dynamics of trilobite molecules
• Long-range Rydberg molecule Rb${}_2$: Two-electron \textit{R}-matrix calculations at intermediate internuclear distances
• Condensate losses and oscillations induced by Rydberg atoms
• On the electrostatic interactions involving long-range Rydberg molecules
• Ultralong Rydberg Cs${}_2$ Molecules Investigated by Combined ab initio Calculations and Perturbation Theory