Quasiforbidden two-body Forster resonances in a cold Cs Rydberg gas

Cold Rydberg atoms are known to display dipole-dipole interaction-allowed resonances, also called Forster resonances, which lead to an efficient energy transfer when the proper electric field is used. This electric field also enables resonances, which do not respect the dipole-dipole selection rules under zero field. A few of these quasiforbidden resonances have been observed but they are often overlooked. Here we show that in cold Cs-133 atoms there is a large number of these resonances that display a significant transfer efficiency due to their strong interactions, even at low electric field. We also develop a graphical method enabling us to find all possible resonances simultaneously. The resulting dramatic increase in the total number of addressable resonant energy transfers at different electric fields could have implications in the search for few-body interactions or macromolecules built from Rydberg atoms.