Electric field-induced wave-packet dynamics and geometrical rearrangement of trilobite Rydberg molecules

Abstract

We investigate the quantum dynamics of ultra-long-range trilobite molecules exposed to homogeneous electric fields. A trilobite molecule consists of a Rydberg atom and a ground-state atom, which is trapped at large internuclear distances in an oscillatory potential due to scattering of the Rydberg electron off the ground-state atom. Within the Born-Oppenheimer approximation, we derive an analytic expression for the two-dimensional adiabatic electronic potential energy surface in weak electric fields valid up to 500 V/m. This is used to unravel the molecular quantum dynamics employing the Multi-Configurational Time-Dependent Hartree method. Quenches of the electric field are performed to trigger the wave packet dynamics including the case of field inversion. Depending on the initial wave packet, we observe radial intra-well and inter-well oscillations as well as angular oscillations and rotations of the respective one-body probability densities. Opportunities to control the molecular configuration are identified, a specific example being the possibility to superimpose different molecular bond lengths by a series of periodic quenches of the electric field.

arXiv comment9 pages, 6 figures

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Cited by in corpus (8)

• Long-range atom-ion Rydberg molecule: A novel molecular binding mechanism
• Observation of vibrational dynamics of orientated Rydberg-atom-ion molecules
• Non-adiabatic decay of Rydberg-atom-ion molecules
• Non-adiabatic interaction effects in the spectra of ultralong-range Rydberg molecules
• Charged ultralong-range Rydberg trimers
• Nonadiabatic decay of metastable states on coupled linear potentials
• Internal diffraction dynamics of trilobite molecules
• On the electrostatic interactions involving long-range Rydberg molecules