Energies and dipole moments of long-range molecular Rydberg states

Abstract

Adiabatic wavefunctions and dipole moments of Rydberg states perturbed by a neutral atom have been investigated. Wavefunctions are equal to sums of products of Coulomb wavefunctions and differ very substantially from any single Coulomb wavefunction. Using the Kirchhoff-integral method (Fabrikant I I 1993 J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 26 2533) we calculate the potential curves of two adiabatic Rydberg states for the Rb*(n≃30) + Rb(5s) system: one dominated by the 3S symmetry near the ground-state Rb atom, and the other dominated by the 3P symmetry.