Abstract
The “trilobite”-type of molecule, predicted in 2000 and observed experimentally in 2015, arises when a Rydberg electron exerts a weak attractive force on a neutral ground state atom. Such molecules have bond lengths exceeding 100 nm. The ultralong-range chemical bond between the two atoms is a nonperturbative linear combination of the many degenerate electronic states associated with high principal quantum numbers, and the resulting electron probability distribution closely resembles a fossil trilobite from antiquity. We show how to coherently engineer this same long-range orbital through a sequence of electric and magnetic field pulses even when the ground-state atom is not present and propose several methods to observe the resulting orbital. The existence of such a ghost chemical bond in which an electron reaches out from one atom to a nonexistent second atom is a consequence of the high level degeneracy.
- Received 16 May 2018
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.113203
© 2018 American Physical Society
Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)
Synopsis
How to Create a Ghost Chemical Bond
Published 12 September 2018
A series of electric and magnetic pulses applied to an atom could cause one of its electrons to behave as if “bonded” to an empty point in space.
See more in Physics