Excitation of weakly-bound molecules to trilobite-like Rydberg states

TL;DR

This paper reports the observation and controlled excitation of trilobite-like Rydberg states in ultracold 85Rb2 molecules, revealing a new bound-to-bound transition method that enables high excitation efficiency at low principal quantum numbers.

Contribution

It demonstrates the excitation of trilobite-like states via bound-to-bound transitions in ultracold molecules, expanding the methods for studying Rydberg molecular states.

Findings

Successful excitation of trilobite-like states at low principal quantum numbers.

High excitation probabilities achieved without high-density samples.

Control over excitation radius through initial vibrational state selection.

Abstract

We observe "trilobite-like" states of ultracold 85Rb2 molecules, in which a ground-state atom is bound by the electronic wavefunction of its Rydberg-atom partner. We populate these states through the ultraviolet excitation of weakly-bound molecules, and access a regime of trilobite-like states at low principal quantum numbers and with vibrational turning points around 35 Bohr radii. This demonstrates that, unlike previous studies that used free-to-bound transitions, trilobite-like states can also be excited through bound-to-bound transitions. This approach provides high excitation probabilities without requiring high-density samples, and affords the ability to control the excitation radius by selection of the initial-state vibrational level.