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Undulations in potential curves analyzed using the Fermi model: LiH, LiHe, LiNe, and H-2 examples

AS Dickinson, F. X. Gadéa

Published Dec 31, 2002• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The interaction of a Rydberg electron with a ground-state atom is modeled using the Fermi approximation to obtain long-range potentials for various excited diatomic molecules. Particular attention is paid to cases of degenerate and near-degenerate atomic Rydberg levels. Extensive comparisons are performed with recent ab initio calculations for (1)Sigma(+) and (3)Sigma(+) states of LiH and H-2, also (2)Sigma(+) states of LiHe, for up to the ninth state of a specified symmetry. Results for LiNe are also discussed. Overall, good qualitative and in some cases quantitative agreement is found. For isolated states, the undulations in the potentials clearly reflect the nodal pattern of the Rydberg state involved and the magnitude is fixed in the Fermi approach by the electron-ground-state atom scattering length. When several states are close in energy, in the Fermi model because of the factorizable nature of the interaction, only a single nonzero potential emerges from the remaining flat manifold. Such behavior explains, for example, the presence of high barriers at large distances seen in ab initio calculations for the (1,3)Sigma(g,u)(+) n = 3 states of molecular hydrogen. For the systems involving H the Fermi results are generally better for the weaker, triplet, interactions than the singlets. In the case of near-degenerate levels the weaker interactions are normally described better than the stronger interaction, where avoided crossings (not included in this simple model) may be important. In LiHe, where the interactions are weaker, generally for separations larger than about 10a(0) the Fermi model obtains barrier positions within 1a(0) and maxima within 10 cm(-1). For LiNe, because of the very small scattering length for electrons in neon, largely qualitative results are obtained. The Fermi model is also shown to yield a physically sound diabatic approach for excited states of diatomic molecules, allowing for a deeper understanding of the unusual shapes of the adiabatic curves. Limitations of the Fermi model are also discussed.

DOI
10.25405/ncl.34647882

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The interaction of a Rydberg electron with a ground-state atom is modeled using the Fermi approximation to obtain long-range potentials for various excited diatomic molecules. Particular attention is paid to cases of degenerate and near-degenerate atomic Rydberg levels. Extensive comparisons are performed with recent ab initio calculations for (1)Sigma(+) and (3)Sigma(+) states of LiH and H-2, also (2)Sigma(+) states of LiHe, for up to the ninth state of a specified symmetry. Results for LiNe are also discussed. Overall, good qualitative and in some cases quantitative agreement is found. For isolated states, the undulations in the potentials clearly reflect the nodal pattern of the Rydberg state involved and the magnitude is fixed in the Fermi approach by the electron-ground-state atom scattering length. When several states are close in energy, in the Fermi model because of the factorizable nature of the interaction, only a single nonzero potential emerges from the remaining flat manifold. Such behavior explains, for example, the presence of high barriers at large distances seen in ab initio calculations for the (1,3)Sigma(g,u)(+) n = 3 states of molecular hydrogen. For the systems involving H the Fermi results are generally better for the weaker, triplet, interactions than the singlets. In the case of near-degenerate levels the weaker interactions are normally described better than the stronger interaction, where avoided crossings (not included in this simple model) may be important. In LiHe, where the interactions are weaker, generally for separations larger than about 10a(0) the Fermi model obtains barrier positions within 1a(0) and maxima within 10 cm(-1). For LiNe, because of the very small scattering length for electrons in neon, largely qualitative results are obtained. The Fermi model is also shown to yield a physically sound diabatic approach for excited states of diatomic molecules, allowing for a deeper understanding of the unusual shapes of the adiabatic curves. Limitations of the Fermi model are also discussed.
The interaction of a Rydberg electron with a ground-state atom is modeled using the Fermi approximation to obtain long-range potentials for various excited diatomic molecules. Particular attention is paid to cases of degenerate and near-degenerate atomic Rydberg levels. Extensive comparisons are performed with recent ab initio calculations for ${}^{1}{\ensuremath{\Sigma}}^{+}$ and ${}^{3}{\ensuremath{\Sigma}}^{+}$ states of LiH and H2,{\mathrm{H}}_{2},H2​, also ${}^{2}{\ensuremath{\Sigma}}^{+}$ states of LiHe, for up to the ninth state of a specified symmetry. Results for LiNe are also discussed. Overall, good qualitative and in some cases quantitative agreement is found. For isolated states, the undulations in the potentials clearly reflect the nodal pattern of the Rydberg state involved and the magnitude is fixed in the Fermi approach by the electron-ground-state atom scattering length. When several states are close in energy, in the Fermi model because of the factorizable nature of the interaction, only a single nonzero potential emerges from the remaining flat manifold. Such behavior explains, for example, the presence of high barriers at large distances seen in ab initio calculations for the ${}^{1,3}{\ensuremath{\Sigma}}_{g,u}^{+}$ n=3n=3n=3 states of molecular hydrogen. For the systems involving H the Fermi results are generally better for the weaker, triplet, interactions than the singlets. In the case of near-degenerate levels the weaker interactions are normally described better than the stronger interaction, where avoided crossings (not included in this simple model) may be important. In LiHe, where the interactions are weaker, generally for separations larger than about 10a0{10a}_{0}10a0​ the Fermi model obtains barrier positions within 1a0{1a}_{0}1a0​ and maxima within 10 ${\mathrm{cm}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}1}$. For LiNe, because of the very small scattering length for electrons in neon, largely qualitative results are obtained. The Fermi model is also shown to yield a physically sound diabatic approach for excited states of diatomic molecules, allowing for a deeper understanding of the unusual shapes of the adiabatic curves. Limitations of the Fermi model are also discussed.
Ultra-cold long-range Rydberg-ground molecule consisting of a Rydberg atom and one or more ground-state atoms is formed by low-energy scattering between the Rydberg electron and ground-state atoms located inside the Rydberg electron’s wave function. The low-energy scattering interaction, initially investigated by Fermi and Omont, has been predicted to lead to molecular binding in a novel type of Rydberg molecules, including the trilobite and butterfly molecules. Their unconventional binding mechanism, which is unlike covalent, or ionic, or van der Waals bonds, results in loosely bound molecules with bond lengths on the order of thousands of Bohr radius. This kind of molecule with large size and huge permanent electric dipole moment is a good candidate for realizing the certain strongly correlated many-body gases and for quantum information processing, as well as for dipolar quantum gases and spin systems with long-range interactions. Consequently, these molecules have received considerable attention in recent years. In this paper, we review the recent theoretical and experimental investigations of ultra-cold long-range Rydberg-ground molecules, including the scattering interaction between the Rydberg electron and ground-state atom and the resulting adiabatic potential curves, experimental observations of photo-associated Rydberg-ground molecules spectra, as well as the measurements of permanent electric dipole moment. Ultra-cold long-range Rydberg-ground molecules are prepared by photoassociation in a high-density cold atom sample. Therefore, the Rydberg electron can bind several ground-state atoms to form a polyatomic Rydberg-ground molecule. The permanent molecular electric-dipole moments are revealed by spectral line broadening in the electric fields. The latest research pointed out that the permanent electric dipole moments of the Cs nDJ -type Rydberg-ground molecules are negative, which is different from the previous reports (the electric dipole moments are positive). The negative sign reflects a deficiency of Rydberg-electron density near the ground-state perturber, which is caused by electronic configuration mixing.
An efficient method to study highly excited states at the ab initio level has been introduced and applied to ultralong Rydberg CsNe molecules. Vibrational properties of Rydberg CsNe molecules are investigated on corresponding potential energy curves obtained by perturbation theory. The Rydberg CsNe molecules are associated with a Rydberg Cs(ns∕np) atom (n = 20-60) and a ground state Ne((1)S0) atom. The starting point for the perturbation treatment of corresponding Rydberg molecular potential energy curves is to generate accurate atomic Rydberg states from realistic ab initio effective core potential. According to the authors' knowledge this is a good reference for ultralong range molecules (order of 1000 Bohr radii) to be studied at the ab initio level.
We introduce a computational method developed for study of long-range molecular Rydberg states of such systems that can be approximated by two electrons in a model potential of the atomic cores. Only diatomic molecules are considered. The method is based on a two-electron RRR-matrix approach inside a sphere centered on one of the atoms. The wave function is then connected to a Coulomb region outside the sphere via a multichannel version of the Coulomb Green's function. This approach is put into a test by its application to a study of Rydberg states of the hydrogen molecule for internuclear distances RRR from 20 to 400 bohrs and energies corresponding to nnn from 3 to 22. The results are compared with previous quantum chemical calculations (lower quantum numbers nnn) and computations based on contact-potential models (higher quantum numbers nnn).
Rydberg atom, with a large principal quantum number n, has big size, long lifetime, strong long-range interactions, and so on. These properties make Rydberg atoms potential candidate of quantum gate and single-photon source. Rydberg electron can interact with nearby ground-state atom, which is polarized by the Rydberg electron and is bound to the orbit of Rydberg electrons forming Rydberg molecule. As the kinetic energy of the Rydberg electron is very low, only the lowest partial waves will contribute to the molecular potential.#br#In this paper, the low electron-atom scattering with the semi-classical approximation is introduced, and the pseudopotential of interaction between Rydberg electron and ground-state atom is used to describe the long-range Rydberg molecular potential. Molecular potential curves for cesium (nS, n=30-60) are plotted according to the results of numerical computation, from which the outermost potential depth De and the equilibrium distance r0 of long-range cesium Rydberg molecule are deduced. Potential curves of cesium Rydberg molecules are consistent with the distribution curves in radial probability densities of cesium Rydberg electrons. Dependences of De and r0 on the principal quantum number n are investigated, this has an important role for the experimental measurements. The size of a Rydberg molecule depends on the equilibrium distance r0 and is proportional to the square of effective principal quantum number (n-δ )2. The calculated outermost potential depth De of Rydberg molecule becomes smaller with the increase of principal quantum number n. Rydberg molecule is very sensitive to the external field and can be used to measure and monitor weak signals.
In this work the existence of a novel type of molecule is shown whose binding is based solely on electron-atom scattering. These molecules are composed of a Rydberg atom and a ground state atom - here Rb(ns) and Rb(5s) - where the binding arises from scattering of the Rydberg electron from the ground state atom. The ground state atom is bound to the Rydberg wavefunction, which has radii on the order of 100nm, and thus these molecules are of long-range. Although the theoretical description of this interaction goes back to the famous work of Fermi in the year 1934 which was expanded in the following decades by Omont and Greene, the experimental proof of their existence was still missing. Up to now, experimental evidence for the ultralong-range Rydberg molecules was found only in spectral line broadenings. The present experiments have demonstrated the direct photoassociation of these ultralong-range Rydberg molecules for Rb(ns)-Rb(5s) triplet states from a cold and dense sample of rubidium 87 atoms for a range of principal quantum numbers, n, between 34 and 40. The high-resolution photoassociation spectra allowed for the observation of several vibrational states separated by only a few Megahertz. Based on the model by Greene the vibrational ground states v=0 are assigned and the dependence of their binding energy on the principal quantum number, n, is used to extract the triplet s-wave scattering length for electron-Rb(5s) collisions from the data. The remarkably good agreement between experiment and theory for the vibrational ground state v=0 over a range of principal quantum numbers attests to the accuracy of Fermi's original pseudopotential approach in describing interactions in excited multi-atom systems. Aside from this good agreement for the state v=0, the measurements also show that contributions from p-wave scattering cannot be neglected, as a number of excited vibrational states is observed in the experiment that are not predicted from the theory assuming only s-wave scattering. Calculations of Li, Pohl and coworkers have shown that a full solution of the electron-atom scattering is necessary for the assignment of all vibrational states. This work finds the molecular bound states to be very sensitive to both s-wave as well as p-wave electron-atom scattering and the Rydberg molecules turn out to be an accurate experimental platform to study electron-atom collisions in a previously inaccessible ultralow-energy regime. In general, the ultralong-range Rydberg molecules investigated here for rubidium are expected for all species with negative scattering length for electron-atom interaction, e. g. the other alkali atoms. Rydberg atom and ground state atom do not even have to be of the same chemical element, the only requirement is a negative scattering length of the ground state atom for electron scattering. Moreover, the binding force of the Rydberg electron is not restricted to a single ground state atom and molecules with more than one ground state atom can be created. The fact that these exotic molecules have huge bond lengths but nevertheless a vibrational spectrum with several states make a new type of ultracold Rydberg chemistry feasible. In the future, larger polymers or even heteronuclear molecules can be realized, where the number of atoms, the constituent atomic elements and the addressed Rydberg state allow to precisely select the properties of the long-range molecule.