Laser-assisted binding of ultracold polar molecules with Rydberg atoms in the van der Waals regime

Abstract

We study ultracold long-range collisions of heteronuclear alkali-metal dimers with a reservoir gas of alkali-metal Rydberg atoms in a two-photon laser excitation scheme. In a low density regime where molecules remain outside the Rydberg orbits of the reservoir atoms, we show that the two-photon photoassociation (PA) of the atom-molecule pair into a long-range bound trimer state is efficient over a broad range of atomic Rydberg channels. As a case study, we obtain the PA lineshapes for the formation of trimers composed of KRb molecules in the rovibrational ground state and excited Rb atoms in the asymptotic Rydberg levels $n^{2}S_j$ and $n^{2}D_j$, for $n=20-80$. We predict atom-molecule binding energies in the range $10-10^3$ kHz for the first vibrational state below threshold. The average trimer formation rate is order $10^8\, {\rm s}^{-1}$ at 1.0 $\mu$K, and depends weakly on the principal quantum number $n$. Our results set the foundations for a broader understanding of exotic long range collisions of dilute molecules in ultracold atomic Rydberg reservoirs.