2025/12/23 by Anonymous, Tangi Legrand, T. Legrand +15
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Chemistry · #Mass Spectrometry Techniques and Applications #Molecular dynamics #Molecular spectroscopy #Molecule #Plant Micronutrient Interactions and Effects #Radioactive element chemistry and processing #Rydberg formula #Rydberg state #Spectroscopy
paper · pdf · open access · doi:10.1103/tjv3-485v
published in Physical Review X (American Physical Society)
openalex publication_date 2026/07/10 · openalex created_date 2026/07/11 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Divalent atoms have emerged as powerful alternatives to alkalis in ultracold atom platforms, offering unique advantages arising from their two-electron structure. Among these species, ytterbium (Yb) is especially promising, yet its anionic properties and its Rydberg spectrum remain comparatively unexplored. In this work, we perform a first and comprehensive experimental and theoretical investigation of ultralong-range Rydberg molecules (ULRMs) of 174Yb in 6sns 1S0 Rydberg states across nearly two decades in principal quantum number n and three orders of magnitude in molecular binding energy. Using the Coulomb Green's function formalism, we compute Born-Oppenheimer molecular potentials describing the Rydberg atom in the presence of a ground-state perturber and achieve quantitative agreement with high-resolution molecular spectra. This enables the extraction of low-energy electron-Yb scattering phase shifts, including the zero-energy s-wave scattering length and the positions of two spin-orbit split p-wave shape resonances. Our results provide strong evidence that the Yb- anion exists only as a metastable resonance.% We additionally show the sensitivity of ULRM spectra to the atomic quantum defects, using this to determine the quantum defect of the 6s23f 1F3 state. Together, these findings establish Yb ULRMs as a powerful probe of electron-Yb interactions and lay essential groundwork for future Rydberg experiments with divalent atoms.