2020/05/31 by Michael Peper, Johannes Deiglmayr
Chemistry · Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic and Subatomic Physics Research #Atomic physics #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Heteronuclear molecule #Homonuclear molecule #Ion #Ionization #Molecular physics #Molecule #Physics #Quantum mechanics #Rydberg formula #Rydberg state #Spectroscopy #Spectroscopy and Laser Applications #physics.atom-ph #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.126.013001
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 126, 013001 (2021) · (5 pages article + 10 pages appendices, 16 figures)
arxiv created 2021/01/06 · openalex publication_date 2021/01/06 · arxiv updated 2021/01/08 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We present the formation of homonuclear Cs2, K2, and heteronuclear CsK long-range Rydberg molecules in a dual-species magneto-optical trap for 39K and 133Cs by one-photon UV photoassociation. The different ground-state-density dependence of homo- and heteronuclear photoassociation rates and the detection of stable molecular ions resulting from autoionization provide an unambiguous assignment. We perform bound-bound millimeter-wave spectroscopy of long-range Rydberg molecules to access molecular states not accessible by one-photon photoassociation. Calculations based on the most recent theoretical model and atomic parameters do not reproduce the full set of data from homo- and heteronuclear long-range Rydberg molecules consistently. This shows that photoassociation and millimeter-wave spectroscopy of heteronuclear long-range Rydberg molecules provide a benchmark for the development of theoretical models.