Long-range atom-ion Rydberg molecule: A novel molecular binding mechanism

Abstract

We present a novel binding mechanism where a neutral Rydberg atom and an atomic ion form a molecular bound state at large internuclear distance. The binding mechanism is based on Stark shifts and level crossings which are induced in the Rydberg atom due to the electric field of the ion. At particular internuclear distances between Rydberg atom and ion, potential wells occur which can hold atom-ion molecular bound states. Apart from the binding mechanism we describe important properties of the long-range atom-ion Rydberg molecule, such as its lifetime and decay paths, its vibrational and rotational structure, and its large dipole moment. Furthermore, we discuss methods how to produce and detect it. The unusual properties of the long-range atom-ion Rydberg molecule give rise to interesting prospects for studies of wave packet dynamics in engineered potential energy landscapes.

14 pages, 5 figures

References in corpus (7)

• An experimental and theoretical guide to strongly interacting Rydberg gases
• Production of trilobite Rydberg molecule dimers with thousand-Debye permanent electric dipole moments
• Observation of Rydberg-atom macrodimers: micrometer-sized diatomic molecules
• Electric field-induced wave-packet dynamics and geometrical rearrangement of trilobite Rydberg molecules
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• Ultracold ion-atom experiments: cooling, chemistry, and quantum effects
• Non-adiabatic interaction effects in the spectra of ultralong-range Rydberg molecules
• Electric field analysis in a cold-ion source using Stark spectroscopy of Rydberg atoms
• Rydberg Macrodimers: Diatomic molecules on the micrometer scale
• Charged ultralong-range Rydberg trimers
• Microwave photo-association of fine-structure-induced Rydberg $(n+2)D_{5/2}n{F}_J$ macro-dimer molecules of cesium
• Hyperfine Structure of $n{P}_{1/2}$ Rydberg States in ${}^{85}$Rb
• The role of Coulomb anti-blockade in the photoassociation of long-range Rydberg molecules
• Spectroscopy of the ${}^{85}$Rb 4$D_{3/2}$ state for hyperfine-structure determination
• Ultracold Interactions between Ions and Polar Molecules
• Nonadiabatic decay of metastable states on coupled linear potentials
• $In$ $situ$ observation of non-polar to strongly polar atom-ion collision dynamics
• Internal diffraction dynamics of trilobite molecules
• Series of molecular-like doubly excited states of a quasi-three-body Coulomb system
• Vibrationally coupled Rydberg atom-ion molecules