2020/12/31 by Filippo Maria Gambetta, Chi Zhang, Markus Hennrich +2 · 35 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Chemical Physics Studies #Atomic physics #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Conical intersection #Conical surface #Dipole #Excited state #Femtosecond #Ion #Ionization #Laser #Materials science #Molecular physics #Molecule #Optics #Physics #Polarizability #Potential energy #Quantum mechanics #Rydberg formula #Spectroscopy #Spectroscopy and Quantum Chemical Studies #physics.atom-ph #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.126.233404
published in Physical Review Letters 126(23), 233404 (American Physical Society) · Main: 6 pages, 3 figures. Supplemental Material: 8 pages, 3 figures
arxiv created 2021/06/11 · openalex publication_date 2021/06/11 · arxiv updated 2021/06/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Conical intersections between electronic potential energy surfaces are paradigmatic for the study of nonadiabatic processes in the excited states of large molecules. However, since the corresponding dynamics occurs on a femtosecond timescale, their investigation remains challenging and requires ultrafast spectroscopy techniques. We demonstrate that trapped Rydberg ions are a platform to engineer conical intersections and to simulate their ensuing dynamics on larger length scales and timescales of the order of nanometers and microseconds, respectively; all this in a highly controllable system. Here, the shape of the potential energy surfaces and the position of the conical intersection can be tuned thanks to the interplay between the high polarizability and the strong dipolar exchange interactions of Rydberg ions. We study how the presence of a conical intersection affects both the nuclear and electronic dynamics demonstrating, in particular, how it results in the inhibition of the nuclear motion. These effects can be monitored in real time via a direct spectroscopic measurement of the electronic populations in a state-of-the-art experimental setup.