Saßmannshausen H, Merkt F, Deiglmayr J. Experimental characterization of singlet scattering channels in long-range Rydberg molecules.
PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2015;
114:133201. [PMID:
25884124 DOI:
10.1103/physrevlett.114.133201]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/01/2014] [Indexed: 06/04/2023]
Abstract
We observe the formation of long-range Cs2 Rydberg molecules consisting of a Rydberg and a ground-state atom by photoassociation spectroscopy in an ultracold Cs gas near 6s1/2(F=3,4)→np3/2 resonances (n=26-34). The spectra reveal two types of molecular states recently predicted by D. A. Anderson, S. A. Miller, and G. Raithel [Phys. Rev. A 90, 062518 (2014)]: states bound purely by triplet s-wave scattering with binding energies ranging from 400 MHz at n=26 to 80 MHz at n=34, and states bound by mixed singlet-triplet s-wave scattering with smaller and F-dependent binding energies. The experimental observations are accounted for by an effective Hamiltonian including s-wave scattering pseudopotentials, the hyperfine interaction of the ground-state atom, and the spin-orbit interaction of the Rydberg atom. The analysis enables the characterization of the role of singlet scattering in the formation of long-range Rydberg molecules and the determination of an effective singlet s-wave scattering length for low-energy-electron-Cs collisions.
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