Formation and properties of Rydberg macrodimers

Journal Article · Sun May 15 00:00:00 EDT 2011 · Physical Review. A

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVA.83.050501· OSTI ID:21546676

Samboy, Nolan; Cote, Robin ^[1]; Stanojevic, Jovica ^[2]

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1. Physics Department, University of Connecticut, 2152 Hillside Road, Storrs, Connecticut 06269-3046 (United States)
2. Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Noethnitzer Strasse 38, D-01187 Dresden (Germany)

We investigate the interaction between two rubidium atoms in highly excited Rydberg states, and find that very long-range potential wells exist. These wells are shown to support many bound states. We calculate the properties of the wells and bound levels, and show that their lifetimes are limited by that of the constituent Rydberg atoms. We also show how these micrometer-sized bound states can be populated via photoassociation (PA), and how the signature of the admixing of various l characters producing the potential wells could be probed. We discuss sharp variations of the PA rate, which could act as a switching mechanism with potential application to quantum information processing.

• OSTI ID: 21546676
• Journal Information: Physical Review. A, Vol. 83, Issue 5; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.83.050501; (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 1050-2947
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ATOM-ATOM COLLISIONS
ATOMS
BOUND STATE
INTERACTIONS
LIFETIME
POTENTIALS
PROCESSING
QUANTUM INFORMATION
QUANTUM WELLS
RUBIDIUM
RYDBERG STATES
TWO-BODY PROBLEM
ALKALI METALS
ATOM COLLISIONS
COLLISIONS
ELEMENTS
ENERGY LEVELS
EXCITED STATES
INFORMATION
MANY-BODY PROBLEM
METALS
NANOSTRUCTURES