Rotational hybridization, and control of alignment and orientation in triatomic ultralong-range Rydberg molecules

Abstract

We explore the electronic structure and rovibrational properties of an ultralong-range triatomic Rydberg molecule formed by a Rydberg atom and a ground state heteronuclear diatomic molecule. We focus here on interaction of Rb($27s$) Rydberg atom with KRb($N=0$) diatomic polar molecule. There's significant electronic hybridization of Rb($n=24$, $l\ge 3$) degenerate manifold. The polar diatomic molecule is allowed to rotate in the electric fields generated by the Rydberg electron and core as well as an external field. We investigate the metamorphosis of the Born-Oppenheimer potential curves, essential for the binding of the molecule, with varying electric field and analyze the resulting properties such as the vibrational structure and the alignment and orientation of the polar diatomic molecule.

10 pages, 9 figures

References in corpus (2)

• A High Phase-Space-Density Gas of Polar Molecules
• Comparative study of the rovibrational properties of heteronuclear alkali dimers in electric fields

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Observation of Rydberg blockade due to the charge-dipole interaction between an atom and a polar molecule
• Hybridization of Rydberg electron orbitals by molecule formation
• Generalized local frame transformation theory for ultralong-range Rydberg molecules
• Sympathetic cooling and slowing of molecules with Rydberg atoms
• Electronic structure of ultralong-range Rydberg pentaatomic molecules with two polar diatomic molecules
• Kato's theorem and ultralong-range Rydberg molecules