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arXiv · 2108.10475

Non-adiabatic decay of Rydberg-atom-ion molecules

Alisher Duspayev·Georg Raithel
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Abstract

The decay of Rydberg-atom-ion molecules (RAIMs) due to non-adiabatic couplings between electronic potential energy surfaces is investigated. We employ the Born-Huang representation and perform numerical simulations using a Crank-Nicolson algorithm. The non-adiabatic lifetimes of rubidium RAIMs for the lowest ten vibrational states, $\nu$, are computed for selected Rydberg principal quantum numbers, $n$. The non-adiabatic lifetimes are found to generally exceed the radiative Rydberg-atom lifetimes. We observe and explain a trend of the lifetimes as a function of $\nu$ and $n$, and attribute irregularities to quantum interference arising from a shallow potential well in an inner potential surface. Our results will be useful for future spectroscopic studies of RAIMs.

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Alisher Duspayev, Georg Raithel. 2021-08-24. Non-adiabatic decay of Rydberg-atom-ion molecules. https://doi.org/10.1103/physreva.105.012810

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