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Science

Making a molecular fossil lookalike

Jelena Stajic

Published Apr 2, 2015• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Molecular Physics Atoms are generally compact objects. However, if one of the electrons orbiting the nucleus is given an extra boost of energy so that it's barely still attached, you get a much larger Rydberg atom. Booth et al. created an even more exotic species: a giant molecule consisting of a regular cesium atom bound within a Rydberg atom of the same element. The molecules are named “trilobites” because their electronic density visually resembles fossils of these extinct marine creatures. Science , this issue p. [99][1] [1]: /lookup/volpage/348/99?iss=6230

DOI
10.1126/science.348.6230.87-e

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Rydberg atom is one with a highly excited electron, and this electron can interact with a second atom in its ground state to form a weakly bound Rydberg molecule.One example of such a bound state is a "trilobite Rydberg molecule," so-called because the electron's probability distribution resembles the long-extinct sea creature.Markus Exner at the Technical University of Kaiserslautern, Germany, and colleagues have now obtained high-resolution measurements of the vibrational spectra of trilobite Rydberg molecules formed from pairs of rubidium atoms [1].The results offer a rigorous test of theoretical models.

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Permanent electric dipole moments are important for understanding symmetry breaking in molecular physics, control of chemical reactions, and realization of strongly correlated many-body quantum systems. However, large molecular permanent electric dipole moments are challenging to realize experimentally. We report the observation of ultralong-range Rydberg molecules with bond lengths of ~100 nanometers and kilo-Debye permanent electric dipole moments that form when an ultracold ground-state cesium (Cs) atom becomes bound within the electronic cloud of an extended Cs electronic orbit. The electronic character of this hybrid class of "trilobite" molecules is dominated by degenerate Rydberg manifolds, making them difficult to produce by conventional photoassociation. We used detailed coupled-channel calculations to reproduce their properties quantitatively. Our findings may lead to progress in ultracold chemistry and strongly correlated many-body physics.

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Molecular Physics
Atoms are generally compact objects. However, if one of the electrons orbiting the nucleus is given an extra boost of energy so that it's barely still attached, you get a much larger Rydberg atom. Booth et al. created an even more exotic species: a giant molecule consisting of a regular cesium atom bound within a Rydberg atom of the same element. The molecules are named “trilobites” because their electronic density visually resembles fossils of these extinct marine creatures.
Science , this issue p. 99
Rydberg atom is one with a highly excited electron, and this electron can interact with a second atom in its ground state to form a weakly bound Rydberg molecule.One example of such a bound state is a "trilobite Rydberg molecule," so-called because the electron's probability distribution resembles the long-extinct sea creature.Markus Exner at the Technical University of Kaiserslautern, Germany, and colleagues have now obtained high-resolution measurements of the vibrational spectra of trilobite Rydberg molecules formed from pairs of rubidium atoms [1].The results offer a rigorous test of theoretical models.
We investigate triatomic molecules that consist of two ground-state atoms and a highly excited Rydberg atom, bound at large internuclear distances of thousands of angstroms. In the molecular state the Rydberg electron is in a superposition of high angular momentum states whose probability densities resemble the form of trilobite fossils. The associated potential-energy landscape has an oscillatory shape and supports a rich variety of stable geometries with different bond angles and bond lengths. Based on an electronic structure investigation we analyze the molecular geometry systematically and develop a simple building principle that predicts the triatomic equilibrium configurations. As a representative example we focus on 87Rb^{87}\mathrm{Rb}87Rb trimers correlated to the n=30n=30n=30 Rydberg state. Using an exact diagonalization scheme we determine and characterize localized vibrational states in these potential minima with energy spacings on the order of 100 $\mathrm{MHz}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}h$.
The creation of giant atoms whose size is comparable to that of a grain of sand might sound like the stuff of science fiction, but in fact such species exist in nature and can now be created in the laboratory using advanced laser systems. Such exotic atoms, in which one electron is placed in a highly-energetic state, are termed Rydberg atoms, after the Swedish spectroscopist J. R. Rydberg who first characterised their properties. As might be expected, such extreme atoms possess very unusual physical and chemical properties. Their study has provided many new insights into the properties of Rydberg atoms themselves, their interactions with other atoms and molecules, and phenomena that arise from their collective interactions. The extreme properties of Rydberg atoms now enable emerging technological applications in sensing and quantum computation.
Abstract This PhD 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.
A whole community of physicists is under the spell of the oversized atoms called Rydberg atoms. Created when one or sometimes two of their electrons is excited to very high energy levels, far from the nuclear core, Rydberg atoms can detect subtle electric fields and probe chemical reactions that ordinarily proceed too fast for study. And because their outermost electrons sometimes orbit the nucleus like planets orbiting the sun—a behavior reminiscent of classical physics, not the quantum physics of the atom—physicists are using Rydberg atoms to study the border between the quantum and classical worlds.
Permanent electric dipole moments are important for understanding symmetry breaking in molecular physics, control of chemical reactions, and realization of strongly correlated many-body quantum systems. However, large molecular permanent electric dipole moments are challenging to realize experimentally. We report the observation of ultralong-range Rydberg molecules with bond lengths of ~100 nanometers and kilo-Debye permanent electric dipole moments that form when an ultracold ground-state cesium (Cs) atom becomes bound within the electronic cloud of an extended Cs electronic orbit. The electronic character of this hybrid class of "trilobite" molecules is dominated by degenerate Rydberg manifolds, making them difficult to produce by conventional photoassociation. We used detailed coupled-channel calculations to reproduce their properties quantitatively. Our findings may lead to progress in ultracold chemistry and strongly correlated many-body physics.