Markus Kurz

Ultra-long-range giant dipole molecules in crossed electric and magnetic fields

We show the existence of ultra-long-range giant dipole molecules formed by a neutral alkali ground state atom that is bound to the decentered electronic wave function of a giant dipole atom. The adiabatic potential surfaces emerging from the interaction of the ground state atom with the giant dipole electron possess a rich topology depending on the degree of electronic excitation. Binding energies and the vibrational motion in the energetically lowest surfaces are analyzed by means of perturbation theory and exact diagonalization techniques. The resulting molecules are truly giant with internuclear distances up to several μm. Finally, we demonstrate the existence of intersection manifolds of excited electronic states that potentially lead to a vibrational decay of the ground state atom dynamics.

Ultralong-range Rydberg molecules in combined electric and magnetic fields

We investigate the impact of combined electric and magnetic fields on the structure of ultralong-range polar Rydberg molecules. Our focus is hereby on the parallel as well as the crossed field configuration, taking into account both the s-wave and p-wave interactions of the Rydberg electron and the neutral ground state atom. We show the strong impact of the p-wave interaction on the ultralong-range molecular states for a pure B-field configuration. In the presence of external fields, the angular degrees of freedom acquire vibrational character, and we encounter two- and three-dimensional oscillatory adiabatic potential energy surfaces for the parallel and crossed field configuration, respectively. The equilibrium configurations of local potential wells can be controlled via the external field parameters for both field configurations depending on the specific degree of electronic excitation. This allows us to tune the molecular alignment and orientation. The resulting electric dipole moment is in the order of several kDebye, and the rovibrational level spacings are in the range of 2–. Both properties are analyzed with varying field strengths.

Electrically dressed ultra-long-range polar Rydberg molecules

We investigate the impact of an electric field on the structure of ultralong-range polar diatomic Rydberg molecules. Both the s-wave and p-wave interactions of the Rydberg electron and the neutral ground state atom are taken into account. In the presence of the electric field the angular degree of freedom between the electric field and the internuclear axis acquires vibrational character and we encounter two-dimensional oscillatory adiabatic potential energy surfaces with an antiparallel equilibrium configuration. The electric field allows to shift the corresponding potential wells in such a manner that the importance of the p-wave interaction can be controlled and the individual wells are energetically lowered at different rates. As a consequence the equilibrium configuration and corresponding energetically lowest well move to larger internuclear distances for increasing field strength. For strong fields the admixture of non-polar molecular Rydberg states leads to the possibility of exciting the large angular momentum polar states via two-photon processes from the ground state of the atom. The resulting properties of the electric dipole moment and the vibrational spectra are analyzed with varying field strength.

Stretching and bending dynamics in triatomic ultralong-range Rydberg molecules

We investigate polyatomic ultralong-range Rydberg molecules consisting of three ground-state atoms bound to a Rydberg atom via

A comparative analysis of binding in ultralong-range Rydberg molecules

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A Green's function approach to giant-dipole systems

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Alignment of D-state Rydberg molecules

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Eigenenergies of excitonic giant-dipole states in cuprous oxide.

-wave interactions. By employing the finite basis set representation of the unperturbed Rydberg electron Greens function we reduce the computational effort to solve the electronic problem substantially. This method is subsequently applied to determine the potential energy surfaces of triatomic systems in electronic

Angular-momentum couplings in ultra-long-range giant dipole molecules

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Excitation dynamics of interacting Rydberg atoms in small lattices

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