Polyatomic Trilobite Rydberg Molecules in a Dense Random Gas

Luukko, Perttu; Rost, Jan M.

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.119.203001

Cited by 19 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 30 publications

(50 reference statements)

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“…As explained in Ref. [171], as N increases so does the probability that two or more perturbers are in close proximity until it is essentially guaranteed 34 . When a cluster of just two nearby atoms 34This is analogous to the "birthday paradox:" there is a 50% probability that two people in a room of twenty-three will share forms, the Hamiltonian matrix contains a 2 × 2 subblock that, to first order, has identical elements.…”

Section: Polyatomic Rydberg Moleculesmentioning

confidence: 92%

Trilobites, butterflies, and other exotic specimens of long-range Rydberg molecules

Eiles

2019

J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys.

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This Ph.D. tutorial discusses ultra-long-range Rydberg molecules, the exotic bound states of a Rydberg atom and one or more ground state atoms immersed in the Rydberg electron's wave function. This novel chemical bond is distinct from an ionic or covalent bond, and is accomplished by a very different mechanism: the Rydberg electron, elastically scattering off of the ground state atoms, exerts a weak attractive force sufficient to form the molecule in long-range oscillatory potential wells. In the last decade this topic has burgeoned into a vibrant and mature subfield of atomic and molecular physics following the rapidly developing capability of experiment to observe and manipulate these molecules. This tutorial focuses on three areas where this experimental progress has demanded more sophisticated theoretical descriptions: the structure of polyatomic molecules, the influence of electronic and nuclear spin, and the behavior of these molecules in external fields. The main results are a collection of potential energy curves and electronic wave functions which together describe the physics of Rydberg molecules. Additionally, to facilitate future progress in this field, this tutorial provides a general overview of the current state of experiment and theory.

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Section: Polyatomic Rydberg Moleculesmentioning

confidence: 92%

Trilobites, butterflies, and other exotic specimens of long-range Rydberg molecules

Eiles

2019

J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys.

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“…A random three-dimensional system, such as an ultracold gas, corresponds to a tightbinding Hamiltonian characterized by strong on-site disorder and a complicated set of strongly disordered hopping amplitudes. Such a system will exhibit both localized states arising from strongly coupled spatial clusters of scatterers and delocalized states resulting from the very long-ranged coupling between sites [49,50].…”

Section: Long-ranged Hopping When R mentioning

confidence: 99%

Anderson localization of a Rydberg electron

Eiles¹,

Eisfeld²,

Rost³

2021

Preprint

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Highly excited Rydberg atoms inherit their level structure, symmetries, and scaling behavior from the hydrogen atom. We will demonstrate that these fundamental properties enable a thermodynamic limit of a single Rydberg atom subjected to interactions with nearby ground state atoms. The limit is reached by simultaneously increasing the number of ground state atoms and the level of excitation of the Rydberg atom, for which the Coulomb potential supplies infinitely many and highly degenerate excited states. Our study reveals a surprising connection to an archetypal concept of condensed matter physics, Anderson localization, facilitated by a direct mapping between the Rydberg atom's electronic spectrum and the spectrum of a tight-binding Hamiltonian. The hopping amplitudes of this tight-binding system are determined by the arrangement of ground state atoms and can range from nearest-neighbor to power-law-tailed to effectively infinite-range, giving rise to different localization scenarios. For arrangements yielding nearest-neighbor hopping amplitudes we identify clear signatures of the Anderson localization of the Rydberg electron.

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“…Finally, by producing bound pairs or even large polyatomic molecules by Rydberg-dressing ground-state interactions, one could also engineer correlation functions in the gas. As the dressing lasers are turned off, the new distribution would retain the signature of the dressed molecules, and hence could be used to design particular two-body, three-body, or more correlation functions, and even create real three-, four-, or more-body interactions [73]. Overall, Rydberg-dressed systems would enable further studies of many-body phenomena in ultracold gases, in addition to the investigation of peculiar chemical bonds.…”

Section: -10mentioning

confidence: 99%

Ultralong-range molecule engineering via Rydberg dressing

Wang

Côté

2020

Phys. Rev. Research

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In 2000, three pioneering papers launched a new era in Rydberg physics. One predicted the blockade mechanism where extremely large Rydberg-Rydberg interactions only allow a single excitation in a given volume. A second envisioned how strong long-range interactions between ground-state atoms could be induced via admixing with Rydberg character with dressing lasers. The third foresaw the existence of a new type of molecules bound by the Rydberg electron, namely, ultralong-range Rydberg molecules (URMs), sometimes known as trilobitelike molecules. We predict a new molecular binding mechanism between ground-state atoms based on the combination of aspects of each feature. By using lasers to dress interactions with a URM state, within a blockade volume, we find that pairs of atoms can be bound in potential wells at separations of thousands of Bohr radii. We show how the wells' properties can be tailored by laser fields. The bound levels produced have unique properties, such as very long bond length and much longer lifetimes than their URM "parents," and, contrary to standard molecular levels, they can be adjusted easily by the appropriate choice of laser parameters or Rydberg dressing state. Furthermore, the spatial orientation and even the geometry of those molecules can be designed and controlled. This approach could also be employed to generate correlated pairs, allowing to engineer atoms' spatial distributions to explore many-body dynamics in ultracold samples.

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Polyatomic Trilobite Rydberg Molecules in a Dense Random Gas

Cited by 19 publications

References 30 publications

Trilobites, butterflies, and other exotic specimens of long-range Rydberg molecules

Trilobites, butterflies, and other exotic specimens of long-range Rydberg molecules

Anderson localization of a Rydberg electron

Ultralong-range molecule engineering via Rydberg dressing

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