title: Excitation of weakly bound molecules to trilobitelike Rydberg states.
abstract: We observe "trilobitelike" states of ultracold (85)Rb(2) molecules, in which a ground-state atom is bound by the electronic wave function of its Rydberg-atom partner. We populate these states through the ultraviolet excitation of weakly bound molecules, and access a regime of trilobitelike states at low principal quantum numbers and with vibrational turning points around 35 Bohr radii. This demonstrates that, unlike previous studies that used free-to-bound transitions, trilobitelike states can also be excited through bound-to-bound transitions. This approach provides high excitation probabilities without requiring high-density samples, and affords the ability to control the excitation radius by selection of the initial-state vibrational level.
authors: Department of Physics, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut 06269-3046, USA.
authors: M A
authors: MA
authors: Bellos
authors: R
authors: R
authors: Carollo
authors: J
authors: J
authors: Banerjee
authors: E E
authors: EE
authors: Eyler
authors: P L
authors: PL
authors: Gould
authors: W C
authors: WC
authors: Stwalley