Image of the week: Ultracold molecular Rydberg physics

By Thomas Farrell on June 15, 2016

This week’s Image of the Week comes from a paper published in JPhysB’s Special Issue on Rydberg Atomic Physics. The issue covers a wide range of topics, spurred on by many recent advances in the field. In their paper Ultracold molecular Rydberg physics in a high density environment, Matthew T Eiles et al study molecules that contain a Rydberg atom bound to another atom. These molecules can have a number of interesting properties including large permanent electric dipole moments. They present a theoretical model that can be used to study a wide range of molecules containing Rydberg atoms in a number of different states.

The image above shows the structure of the trilobite state of the body-centered cubic they use for their example molecule in this case. It shows the three dimensional structure of the state. The probability amplitude is plotted as the distance from the center as a function of θ and φ.

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Front Image and article image: A polar plot of the A1g cubic hybridized trilobite state: the probability amplitude, scaled to highlight the nodal structure, adapted from Matthew T Eiles et al 2016 J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 49 114005 and © IOP Publishing. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved