mm-wave Rydberg-Rydberg transitions gauge intermolecular coupling in a molecular ultracold plasma.

Out-of-equilibrium, strong correlation in a many-body system can trigger emergent properties that act to constrain the natural dissipation of energy and matter. Signs of such self-organization appear in the avalanche, bifurcation, and quench of a state-selected Rydberg gas of nitric oxide to form an ultracold, strongly correlated ultracold plasma. Work reported here focuses on the initial stages of avalanche and quench and uses the mm-wave spectroscopy of an embedded quantum probe to characterize the intermolecular interaction dynamics associated with the evolution to plasma. Double-resonance excitation prepares a Rydberg gas of nitric oxide composed of a single selected state of principal quantum number, n0. Penning ionization, followed by an avalanche of electron-Rydberg collisions, forms a plasma of NO+ ions and weakly bound electrons, in which a residual population of n0 Rydberg molecules evolves to a state of high orbital angular momentum, ℓ. Predissociation depletes the plasma of low-ℓ molecules. Relaxation ceases and n0ℓ(2) molecules with ℓ ≥ 4 persist for very long times. At short times, varying excitation spectra of mm-wave Rydberg-Rydberg transitions mark the rate of electron-collisional ℓ-mixing. Deep depletion resonances that persist for long times signal energy redistribution in the basis of central-field Rydberg states. The widths and asymmetries of Fano line shapes witness the degree to which coupling in the arrested bath (i) broadens the allowed transition and (ii) mixes the local network of levels in the ensemble.