How do ultralong-range homonuclear Rydberg molecules get their permanent dipole moments?

Abstract

Cold and ultracold Rydberg atoms are in considerable vogue for their ability to creating strong interactions, stemming from their exaggerated and readily tunable properties. Ultralong-range Rydberg molecules have been predicted to form from the interaction of ultracold Rydberg atoms with ground-state atoms and polar molecules. In this work, we discuss and demonstrate how such molecules, which are homonuclear, form substantially large permanent electric dipole moments. A corollary benefit of such strong hybridisation is the realisation of high angular momentum degenerate Rydberg molecules (so-called trilobite molecules) with standard photoassociation techniques.