Lifetimes of ultralong-range Rydberg molecules in vibrational ground and excited states
Lifetimes of ultralong-range Rydberg molecules in vibrational ground and excited states
复制标题
DOI：
10.1088/0953-4075/44/18/184004
复制
发表时间：
2011-09-28
影响因子：
1.6
通讯作者：
Rost, Jan Michael
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Butscher, Bjoern;Bendkowsky, Vera;Rost, Jan Michael
自从他们第一次实验观察以来，由高激发里德堡原子和基态原子组成的超长程里德堡分子[1，2]引起了超冷化学领域的兴趣[3，4]。特别是有趣的性质，如大小，极化率和类型的绑定，他们继承了里德伯原子的兴趣。该领域的一个悬而未决的问题是与相应的原子里德伯态相比，分子的寿命减少[2]。本文对（3）σ（5s -35 s）分子的振动基态和激发态寿命进行了实验研究。我们表明，寿命取决于基态原子的密度，这可以描述在一个经典的分子和基态原子之间的散射的框架。我们还发现，与基态相比，激发分子态的寿命甚至更短，这可以归因于由于在分子势的特殊形状中发生的不完美量子反射而导致的束缚原子对的向内穿透[5]。
Since their first experimental observation, ultralong-range Rydberg molecules consisting of a highly excited Rydberg atom and a ground state atom [1, 2] have attracted the interest in the field of ultracold chemistry [3, 4]. Especially the intriguing properties such as size, polarizability and type of binding they inherit from the Rydberg atom are of interest. An open question in the field is the reduced lifetime of the molecules compared to the corresponding atomic Rydberg states [2]. In this paper we present an experimental study on the lifetimes of the (3)Sigma (5s - 35s) molecule in its vibrational ground state and in an excited state. We show that the lifetimes depend on the density of ground state atoms and that this can be described in the frame of a classical scattering between the molecules and ground state atoms. We also find that the excited molecular state has an even more reduced lifetime compared to the ground state which can be attributed to an inward penetration of the bound atomic pair due to imperfect quantum reflection that takes place in the special shape of the molecular potential [5].