Related papers: Spatial imaging of a novel type of molecular ions
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…
Vibrational dynamics in conventional molecules usually takes place on a timescale of picoseconds or shorter. A striking exception are ultralong-range Rydberg molecules, for which dynamics is dramatically slowed down as a consequence of the…
Rydberg molecule, formed by one or more Rydberg atoms, exhibits remarkable properties, including an exceptionally large spatial extent, rich rovibrational level structures, permanent electric dipole moments, and a pronounced sensitivity to…
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…
Molecular bonds can be divided into four primary types: ionic, covalent, van der Waals and hydrogen bonds. At ultralow temperatures a novel binding type emerges paving the way for novel molecules and ultracold chemistry [1,2]. The…
We unravel some peculiar properties of ultralong-range Rydberg molecules formed by an $s$-state $^{87}$Rb Rydberg atom and a corresponding ground-state atom whose electronic orbitals are spherically symmetric and therefore should not be…
We propose an approach to detect individual Rydberg molecules with each molecule consisting of two atoms in different Rydberg states. The scheme exploits the movement of atoms in the presence of an external force that exerts only on atoms…
We review ultralong-range Rydberg molecules (ULRM), which are bound states between a Rydberg atom and one or more ground-state atoms with bond lengths on the order of thousands of Bohr radii. The binding originates from multiple…
Obtaining full control over the internal and external quantum states of molecules is the central goal of ultracold chemistry and allows for the study of coherent molecular dynamics, collisions and tests of fundamental laws of physics. When…
Sufficiently high densities in Bose-Einstein condensates provide favorable conditions for the production of ultralong-range polyatomic molecules consisting of one Rydberg atom and a number of neutral ground state atoms. The chemical binding…
We present a new mechanism contributing to the detection of photoassociated long-range Rydberg molecules via pulsed-field ionization: ionic products, created by the decay of a long-range Rydberg molecule, modify the excitation spectrum of…
Rydberg atoms in optical lattices and tweezers is now a well established platform for simulating quantum spin systems. However, the role of the atoms' spatial wavefunction has not been examined in detail experimentally. Here, we show a…
Controlling molecular binding at the level of single atoms is one of the holy grails of quantum chemistry. Rydberg macrodimers -- bound states between highly excited Rydberg atoms -- provide a novel perspective in this direction. Resulting…
We study the long-range interaction of a single ion with a highly excited ultracold Rydberg atom and report on the direct observation of ion-induced Rydberg excitation blockade mediated over tens of micrometer distances. Our hybrid ion-atom…
We present experimental evidence for spin-orbit interaction of an electron as it scatters from a neutral atom. The scattering process takes place within a Rb$_2$ ultralong-range Rydberg molecule, consisting of a Rydberg atomic core, a…
We have studied the associative ionization of a Rydberg atom and a ground state atom in an ultracold Rydberg gas. The measured scattering cross section is three orders of magnitude larger than the geometrical size of the produced molecule.…
The internal electric field of a Rydberg atom electron can bind a polar molecule to form a giant ultralong-range stable polyatomic molecule. Such molecules not only share their properties with Rydberg atoms, they possess huge permanent…
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…
We propose a novel type of Rydberg dimer, consisting of a Rydberg-state atom bound to a distant positive ion. The molecule is formed through long-range electric-multipole interaction between the Rydberg atom and the point-like ion. We…
Recently Rydberg atom-ion bound states have been observed using a high resolution ion microscope (Nature 605, 453 (2022)) and the corresponding vibrational dynamics has been spectroscopically analyzed. The atom-ion bond is created by an…