Ultralong-range Rydberg molecules

Article By:

Löw, Robert Physikalisches Institut, Universität Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany.

Last reviewed:2011

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.YB110106

The physical world around us is a result of atoms that have been bound together by various interaction mechanisms. The most prominent of these are covalent bonds and ionic bonds, which are responsible for the structure of almost all matter around us. Humankind has examined these bonding mechanisms for many centuries and has made remarkable progress in combining matter at will for specific applications. A crucial prerequisite for designing arbitrary molecules is a detailed understanding of the interaction mechanisms among the binding partners and how to control them. Nowadays this can be done with exactly two atoms with almost complete control over their internal and external degrees of freedom. Their physical nature is therefore determined by quantum mechanics, and with this, a new research field in quantum chemistry is established. In quantum chemistry, the reaction dynamics are no longer described by thermodynamic properties of ensembles; they are described by well-controlled quantum states with deterministic reaction channels.

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