Rydberg Molecule-Induced Remote Spin Flips.
We have performed high resolution photoassociation spectroscopy of rubidium ultralong-range Rydberg molecules in the vicinity of the 25P state. Because of the hyperfine interaction in the ground state perturber atom, the emerging mixed singlet-triplet potentials contain contributions from both hyperfine states. We show that this can be used to induce remote spin flips in the perturber atom upon excitation of a Rydberg molecule. Furthermore, when the spin-orbit splitting of the Rydberg state is comparable to the hyperfine splitting in the ground state, the orbital angular momentum of the Rydberg electron is entangled with the nuclear spin of the perturber atom. Our results open new possibilities for the implementation of spin-dependent interactions for ultracold atoms in bulk systems and in optical lattices.
Research Center OPTIMAS, Technische Universität Kaiserslautern, 67663 Kaiserslautern, Germany.
Thomas
T
Niederprüm
Research Center OPTIMAS, Technische Universität Kaiserslautern, 67663 Kaiserslautern, Germany.|Graduate School Materials Science in Mainz, Staudinger Weg 9, 55128 Mainz, Germany.
Oliver
O
Thomas
Research Center OPTIMAS, Technische Universität Kaiserslautern, 67663 Kaiserslautern, Germany.
Tanita
T
Eichert
Research Center OPTIMAS, Technische Universität Kaiserslautern, 67663 Kaiserslautern, Germany.
Herwig
H
Ott