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Cover Picture: Fortschritte der Physik 9 / 2011
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
fortschritte der physik
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.469
H-Index - 71
eISSN - 1521-3978
pISSN - 0015-8208
DOI - 10.1002/prop.201190003
Subject(s) - cover (algebra) , physics , atom (system on chip) , ground state , atomic physics , rydberg formula , excited state , computer science , quantum mechanics , mechanical engineering , engineering , ion , ionization , embedded system
The cover page depicts an artistic view of an ultra long‐range Rydberg molecule, which has been shown to exist and to reach sizes even larger than that of a virus. The enormous size of such a diatomic molecule is due to the extension of the wave function of a highly excited electron in a Rydberg atom in which a ground state atom is trapped. The binding mechanism is based on repeated low energy scattering of the loosely bound electron with the neutral ground state atom resulting in a shallow effective molecular potential with binding energies in the MHz range. By courtesy of Prof. Pfau (Stuttgart University) and collaborators.