Production of trilobite Rydberg molecule dimers with kilo-Debye permanent electric dipole moments

Abstract

Making a molecular fossil lookalike Atoms are generally compact objects. However, if one of the electrons orbiting the nucleus is given an extra boost of energy so that it's barely still attached, you get a much larger Rydberg atom. Booth et al. created an even more exotic species: a giant molecule consisting of a regular cesium atom bound within a Rydberg atom of the same element. The molecules are named “trilobites” because their electronic density visually resembles fossils of these extinct marine creatures. Science , this issue p. 99