Freiburg 2024 – scientific programme

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A: Fachverband Atomphysik

A 35: Poster VIII

A 35.6: Poster

Thursday, March 14, 2024, 17:00–19:00, Tent C

Formation and Decay of Charged Rydberg Dimers and Trimers — •Neethu Abraham and Matthew Travis Eiles — Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Dresden, Germany

The preparation and detection of various types of Rydberg molecules, ranging from Rydberg macrodimers to Rydberg atom-ion molecules is a major advancement in the field of ultracold atomic physics. The lifetimes of these molecules are typically shorter than those of bare Rydberg atoms, indicating the involvement of non-radiative decay processes in their dynamics. Specifically, the presence of non-adiabatic coupling between electronic potential energy curves could be a significant factor in their decay. We explore this mechanism here in the Rydberg atom-ion molecule system, where a vibrational bound state can hop onto a repulsive potential curve and decay. We employ the streamlined version of the multichannel R-matrix method to compute the positions and widths of the resonance states, revealing notable alterations arising from the influence of this coupling. An extended version of the Rydberg atom-ion dimer is a Rydberg atom-atom-ion trimer system, and we investigate the prospect of its formation. The interaction between the two Rydberg atoms leads to interesting phenomena influencing the overall molecular configuration. Our primary objective is to provide a detailed exploration of the electronic and vibrational structure of this tri-atomic molecule.

Keywords: Rydberg; Rydberg atom-ion molecule; trimer; R-matrix; scattering