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

TL;DR

This paper predicts the formation of ultra-long-range giant dipole molecules with internuclear distances up to micrometers, exploring their potential vibrational decay pathways in crossed electric and magnetic fields.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of giant dipole molecules formed by a neutral atom bound to a decentered electronic wave function in crossed fields, analyzing their potential surfaces and vibrational properties.

Findings

Giant dipole molecules can have internuclear distances up to several micrometers.

The potential surfaces exhibit complex topologies depending on electronic excitation.

Excited state intersections may lead to vibrational decay of the molecules.

Abstract

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 posses 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 $\mu m$. 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.