Image of the week: overlapping Rydberg atoms

By Thomas Farrell on November 1, 2016

This week’s Image of the Week comes from JPhysB‘s Special Issue on Addressing Quantum Many-body Problems with Cold Atoms and Molecules. In their contribution to the issue, Martin Kiffner et al perform calculations of autoionization rates for two rubidium Rydberg atoms with overlapping electron clouds. They find that, independent of the initial state of the atoms, the autoionization rates increase exponentially with the amount of charge overlap.

$Charge density ρ for wave function Ψ in equation (2) with nA = 20, lA = 2, ${m}_{A}=-1$ and nB = 15, lB = 1, mB = 1. The dashed sphere with radius RA (RB) denotes the classical outer turning point of the electron of atom A (B).$

Charge density ρ for wave function of two Rydberg atoms in different electronic states. The dashed sphere with radius denotes the classical outer turning point of the electron of atoms. Adapted from Martin Kiffner et al 2016 J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 49 204004 © 2016 IOP Publishing Ltd

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