Revealing electron-ytterbium interactions through Rydberg molecular spectroscopy

Abstract

Divalent atoms have emerged as powerful alternatives to alkalis in ultracold atom platforms, offering unique advantages arising from their two-electron structure. Among these species, ytterbium (Yb) is especially promising, yet its anionic properties and its Rydberg spectrum remain comparatively unexplored. In this work, we perform a first and comprehensive experimental and theoretical investigation of ultralong-range Rydberg molecules (ULRMs) of $^{174}$Yb in $6sns\,^1S_0$ Rydberg states across nearly two decades in principal quantum number $n$ and three orders of magnitude in molecular binding energy. Using the Coulomb Green's function formalism, we compute Born-Oppenheimer molecular potentials describing the Rydberg atom in the presence of a ground-state perturber and achieve quantitative agreement with high-resolution molecular spectra. This enables the extraction of low-energy electron-Yb scattering phase shifts, including the zero-energy $s$-wave scattering length and the positions of two spin-orbit split $p$-wave shape resonances. Our results provide strong evidence that the Yb$^{-}$ anion exists only as a metastable resonance.% We additionally show the sensitivity of ULRM spectra to the atomic quantum defects, using this to determine the quantum defect of the $6s23f\, ^1F_3$ state. Together, these findings establish Yb ULRMs as a powerful probe of electron-Yb interactions and lay essential groundwork for future Rydberg experiments with divalent atoms.