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APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 85 » Issue 12
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 2458–2461 (2000)

Creation of Polar and Nonpolar Ultra-Long-Range Rydberg Molecules

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Chris H. Greene
Department of Physics and JILA, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309-0440

A. S. Dickinson*
JILA, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309-0440

H. R. Sadeghpour
ITAMP, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138

Received 19 May 2000; published in the issue dated 18 September 2000

We predict the existence of a ubiquitous class of long-range molecular Rydberg states, whose Born-Oppenheimer potential curves are oscillatory in nature. These oscillations reflect the nodal structure of the atomic Rydberg state wave functions. The temperature and density of atoms in a Bose-Einstein condensate are particularly favorable for the laser excitation of ultra-long-range vibrational bound states localized at internuclear distances in the range 103– 105 a.u. A surprising trilobitelike class of polar homonuclear diatomics should exhibit electric dipole moments in the kilodebye range.

© 2000 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.85.2458
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.85.2458
PACS:
31.50.+w, 03.75.Fi, 33.80.Rv

*Permanent address: Physics Department, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.

 
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