Analysis of long-range Cs Rydberg potential wells

Abstract

We analyse bound states at long-range (R∼5 μm) for pairs of Cs atoms in the 89D and neighbouring states. These wells are due solely to avoided crossings between the van der Waals pair interaction potentials. The depth of the wells is ∼40 MHz, and vibrational spectra consist of hundreds of bound states. We present detailed calculations of the properties of two of these wells at different electric fields (∼ mV cm^− 1), since the electric field changes the well depth and shape. We estimate bound-state lifetimes μs, lineshapes, and two-photon excitation and detection rates ∼Hz from the 6P state at a temperature of T = 40 μK for these molecules.