Electronic structure of ultralong-range Rydberg pentaatomic molecules with two polar diatomic molecules

Abstract

We explore the electronic structure of ultralong-range pentaatomic Rydberg molecules from a merger of a Rydberg atom and two ground state heteronuclear diatomic molecules. Our focus is on the interaction of Rb($23s$) and Rb($n=20$, $l\ge 3$) Rydberg states with ground and rotationally excited KRb diatomic polar molecules. For symmetric and asymmetric configurations of the pentaatomic Rydberg molecule, we investigate the metamorphosis of the Born-Oppenheimer potential curves, essential for the binding of the molecule, with varying distance from the Rydberg core and analyze the alignment and orientation of the polar diatomic molecules.