Laser-assisted binding of ultracold polar molecules with Rydberg atoms in the van der Waals regime

We study ultracold long-range collisions of heteronuclear alkali-metal dimers with a reservoir gas of alkali-metal Rydberg atoms in a two-photon laser excitation scheme. In a low density regime where molecules remain outside the Rydberg orbits of the reservoir atoms, we show that the two-photon photoassociation (PA) of the atom-molecule pair into a long-range bound trimer state is efficient over a broad range of atomic Rydberg channels. As a case study, we obtain the PA lineshapes for the formation of trimers composed of KRb molecules in the rovibrational ground state and excited Rb atoms in the asymptotic Rydberg levels $n^{2}S_j$ and $n^{2}D_j$, for $n=20-80$. We predict atom-molecule binding energies in the range $10-10^3$ kHz for the first vibrational state below threshold. The average trimer formation rate is order $10^8, {rm s}^{-1}$ at 1.0 $mu$K, and depends weakly on the principal quantum number $n$. Our results set the foundations for a broader understanding of exotic long range collisions of dilute molecules in ultracold atomic Rydberg reservoirs.

$C_6$ coefficients for interacting Rydberg atoms and alkali-metal dimers

We study the van der Waals interaction between Rydberg alkali-metal atoms with fine structure ($n^2L_j$; $Lleq 2$) and heteronuclear alkali-metal dimers in the ground rovibrational state ($X^1Sigma^+$; $v=0$, $J=0$). We compute the associated $C_6$ dispersion coefficients of atom-molecule pairs involving $^{133}$Cs and $^{85}$Rb atoms interacting with KRb, LiCs, LiRb, and RbCs molecules. The obtained dispersion coefficients can be accurately fitted to a state-dependent polynomial $O(n^7)$ over the range of principal quantum numbers $40leq nleq 150$. For all atom-molecule pairs considered, Rydberg states $n^2S_j$ and $n^2P_j$ result in attractive $1/R^6$ potentials. In contrast, $n^2D_j$ states can give rise to repulsive potentials for specific atom-molecule pairs. The interaction energy at the LeRoy distance approximately scales as $n^{-5}$ for $n>40$. For intermediate values of $nlesssim40$, both repulsive and attractive interaction energies in the order of $ 10-100 ,mu$K can be achieved with specific atomic and molecular species. The accuracy of the reported $C_6$ coefficients is limited by the quality of the atomic quantum defects, with relative errors $Delta C_6/C_6$ estimated to be no greater than 1% on average.

Coherent collective dynamics and entanglement evolution of polar molecules on 1D lattices

We study a LiCs strongly-interacting molecular gas loaded into an one-dimensional optical lattice at quarter filling. The molecules are in the lowest electronic and vibrational state, $X^{1}Sigma$ ($ u=0$). Due to the large intermolecular distance and low filling, dipole-dipole interaction in the nearest-neighbor approximation governs the dynamics of the rotational excitations. For low DC electric field strengths, the full set of rotational levels $N=0,1$ must be taken into account, nevertheless, our calculations show that very weak fields act as field-selectors disclosing two- and three-level systems out of the original four-level one. The dynamics and the generated von Neumann entanglement entropy among the internal rotational states throughout the evolution are presented for low, moderate and strong fields . We observe a sharp and monotonous growth of the entanglement as the dynamics take place showing the potential of these molecular systems to be used in quantum information protocols. The numerical simulations are performed by means of the Time-Evolving Block Decimation algorithm based on the Matrix Product State formalism and the Susuki-Trotter decomposition.