Observation of a molecular bond between ions and Rydberg atoms

Nicolas Zuber, Viraatt S. V. Anasuri, Moritz Berngruber, Yi-Quan Zou, Florian Meinert, Robert Löw and Tilman Pfau ()
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Nicolas Zuber: Universität Stuttgart
Viraatt S. V. Anasuri: Universität Stuttgart
Moritz Berngruber: Universität Stuttgart
Yi-Quan Zou: Universität Stuttgart
Florian Meinert: Universität Stuttgart
Robert Löw: Universität Stuttgart
Tilman Pfau: Universität Stuttgart

Nature, 2022, vol. 605, issue 7910, 453-456

Abstract: Abstract Atoms with a highly excited electron, called Rydberg atoms, can form unusual types of molecular bonds1–4. The bonds differ from the well-known ionic and covalent bonds5,6 not only by their binding mechanisms, but also by their bond lengths ranging up to several micrometres. Here we observe a new type of molecular ion based on the interaction between the ionic charge and a flipping-induced dipole of a Rydberg atom with a bond length of several micrometres. We measure the vibrational spectrum and spatially resolve the bond length and the angular alignment of the molecule using a high-resolution ion microscope7. As a consequence of the large bond length, the molecular dynamics is extremely slow. These results pave the way for future studies of spatio-temporal effects in molecular dynamics (for example, beyond Born–Oppenheimer physics).

Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04577-5

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