On the electrostatic interactions involving long-range Rydberg molecules

Abstract

A ground state atom immersed in the wave function of the valence electron of a Rydberg atom can generate a long-range Rydberg molecule (LRRM). In this work, using the multipole expansion of the electrostatic interaction in prolate spheroidal coordinates, approximate and compact expressions of the electrostatic potential that determine the chemistry of trilobite and butterfly LRRM are explored. It is shown that even the prolate spheroidal monopole term can be used to describe general features of the potential generated by an LRRM at short distances. It is also shown that even at long separations that allow a perturbative description of the intermolecular interaction between two LRRM, the convergence of the multipole prolate spheroidal expansion is faster than that of its spherical analogue.