Observation of resonant monopole-dipole energy transfer between Rydberg atoms and polar molecules

J. Zou; R. R. W. Wang; R. González-Férez; H. R. Sadeghpour; S. D. Hogan

doi:10.1103/k9d5-1jcc

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arXiv · 2509.21582

Observation of resonant monopole-dipole energy transfer between Rydberg atoms and polar molecules

J. Zou·R. R. W. Wang·R. González-Férez·H. R. Sadeghpour·S. D. Hogan

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Abstract

Resonant energy transfer (RET), between equal parity 1s65s$^3\mathrm{S}_1$ and 1s66s$^3\mathrm{S}_1$ Rydberg levels in helium has been observed in low-temperature ($\sim80$ mK) collisions with ammonia molecules which undergo inversion transitions in their X$^1$A$_1$ ground electronic state. This hybrid Rydberg-atom-polar-molecule RET represents a monopole-dipole energy exchange reaction that necessarily requires spatial overlap of the Rydberg-electron and molecular wavefunctions. Calculations, that account explicitly for the charge-dipole interaction between the Rydberg electron and the molecule, provide a quantitative explanation of the observations. Total parity is conserved in the reaction through the mixing of collisional angular momentum in the atom-molecule complex. This work opens opportunities to expand the toolbox for quantum science with charge-dipole-mediated energy exchange in hybrid neutral-atom-polar-molecule platforms.

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J. Zou, R. R. W. Wang, R. González-Férez, H. R. Sadeghpour, S. D. Hogan. 2025-09-25. Observation of resonant monopole-dipole energy transfer between Rydberg atoms and polar molecules. https://doi.org/10.1103/k9d5-1jcc

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