Formation of Rydberg macrodimers and their properties

TL;DR

This paper explores the formation and properties of Rydberg macrodimers, long-range bound states of highly excited rubidium atoms, including their potential for quantum information applications.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of the potential wells, bound states, and formation mechanisms of Rydberg macrodimers, highlighting their unique properties and potential uses.

Findings

Existence of long-range potential wells supporting bound states.

Lifetimes limited by constituent Rydberg atoms.

Photoassociation can efficiently produce macrodimers.

Abstract

We investigate the interaction between two rubidium atoms in highly excited Rydberg states, and find that very long-range potential wells exist. These wells are shown to support many bound states. We calculate the properties of the wells and bound levels, and show that their lifetimes are limited by that of the constituent Rydberg atoms. We also show how these $\mu$m-size bound states can be populated {\it via} photoassociation (PA), and how the signature of the ad-mixing of various $\ell$-character producing the potential wells could be probed. We discuss how sharp variations of the PA rate %to macrodimer bound levels could act as a switching mechanism with potential application to quantum information processing.