2014/10/02 by Johannes Deiglmayr, Heiner Saßmannshausen, P. Pillet +3 · 44 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Atom (system on chip) #Atomic physics #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Dipole #Excited state #Ionization #Parity (physics) #Physics #Quadrupole #Quantum mechanics #Quantum optics and atomic interactions #Quantum, superfluid, helium dynamics #Rydberg formula #physics.atom-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.113.193001
published in Physical Review Letters 113(19), 193001 (American Physical Society) · 5 pages, 3 figures
arxiv created 2014/10/02 · openalex publication_date 2014/11/04 · arxiv updated 2014/12/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We observe the direct excitation of pairs of Cs atoms from the ground state to molecular states correlating asymptotically to nsn'f asymptotes. The molecular resonances are interpreted as originating from the dipole-quadrupole interaction between the nsn'f pair states and close-by npnp asymptotes (22≤n≤32). This interpretation is supported by Stark spectroscopy of the pair states and a detailed modeling of the interaction potentials. The dipole-quadrupole interaction mixes electronic states of opposite parity and, thus, requires a coupling between electronic and nuclear motion to conserve the total parity of the system. This non-Born-Oppenheimer coupling is facilitated by the near-degeneracy of even- and odd-L partial waves in the atom-atom scattering which have opposite parity.