Ultra-long-range molecule engineering via Rydberg-dressing

Jia Wang 1 and Robin Cote2

1Centre for Quantum and Optical Science, Swinburne University, Melbourne 3122, Australia2Department of Physics, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA

In 2000, the three seminal papers launched a new era in Rydberg physics, predicting the blockademechanism [1], exploring Rydberg dressed interactions [2], and foreseeing trilobite-like molecules [3].Here, we explore how a new binding mechanism between ground state atoms, based on Rydberg-dressing, can lead to ultra-long-range molecules. We show that by using far-detuned lasers tocouple a small but adjustable Rydberg component to the ground state atom, localized long-rangepotential wells can be created that can support molecular bound levels (Fig. 1).

300 500 700 900 1100 1300 1500 1700R (a.u.)

-4-3-2-101

U(R

) (2p

MH

z)

18 21 24 27 30 33W (2p MHz)

0.51.01.52.02.5

E b(2p

MH

z)

80 90 100 110 120D (2p MHz)

0.51.01.52.02.5

W = 25 x 2p MHzD = 100 x 2p MHz

D = 100 x 2p MHzW = 25 x 2p MHz (a)

(b) (c)

0.5 1 2 4 8 16

R/RvdW

-2500

-2000

-1500

-1000

-500

0

500

1000

Vg

g/E

vdW

-40

-20

0

20

Vg

e/E

vdW

Ω

∆

Figure 1: Left: Sketch with dressing lasers. Right: (a) The dressed BO potential U (R) with lowestlevel (Eb ∼0.72 MHz) and |ψ|2. In (b), Eb vs. Ω for a specific ∆, and in (c), vs. ∆ for a specific Ω.

Figure 2: Two-color BO-PES (x and y in 1000 a0)..

We consider dressing with s, p, and d Ryd-berg states using different photon polarizations.We find that each type can sustain bound levels,with linear polarization leading to larger bind-ing energies. We also extend the treatment topolyatomic systems. Fig. 2 shows the BO-PESfor a two-color dressing scheme, with one laserdressing with 30p3/2, and another with 35p3/2.The potential exhibits two minima at R ≈ 1400a.u. (θ = 0 and π), and another at R ≈ 2000a.u. (θ ≈ π/2). The 3D-plot depicts the wells inspace based on the azimuthal symmetry of the system. This configuration could sustain a tetramerstate, with one atom in the center, one in the torus, and one in each sphere.

[1] D. Jaksch, J.I. Cirac, P. Zoller, S.L. Rolston, R. Cote,, and M.D. Lukin, PRL 85, 2208 (2000).

[2] L. Santos, G.V. Shlyapnikov, P. Zoller, and M. Lewenstein, PRL 85, 1791 (2000).

[3] C.H. Greene, A.S. Dickinson, and H.R. Sadeghpour, PRL 85, 2458 (2000).

This abstract was submitted to PQE-2019, the 49th Winter Colloquium on the Physics of Quantum Electronics.Submitted by Robin Cote on Wed Dec 5 13:45:10 CST 2018.See the program for placement of this presentation.