Alignment of D-state Rydberg molecules
Atomic Physics
2014-04-15 v1 Quantum Gases
Quantum Physics
Abstract
We report on the formation of ultralong-range Rydberg D-state molecules via photoassociation in an ultracold cloud of rubidium atoms. By applying a magnetic offset field on the order of 10 G and high resolution spectroscopy, we are able to resolve individual rovibrational molecular states. A full theory, using the Born-Oppenheimer approximation including s- and p-wave scattering, reproduces the measured binding energies. The calculated molecular wavefunctions show that in the experiment we can selectively excite stationary molecular states with an extraordinary degree of alignment or anti-alignment with respect to the magnetic field axis.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1401.4111,
title = {Alignment of D-state Rydberg molecules},
author = {Alexander T. Krupp and Anita Gaj and Jonathan B. Balewski and Philipp Ilzhöfer and Sebastian Hofferberth and Robert Löw and Tilman Pfau and Markus Kurz and Peter Schmelcher},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1401.4111},
year = {2014}
}
Comments
10 pages and 8 figures including supplementary