Collision processes of high Ryberg states in atomic lithium

H. G. Berry, J.C. Dehaes, D. K. Neek +1 more

Paul Oxley, J.J. Daly

Laurentius Windholz

Takashi Mukaiyama

Davorka Azinović, Slobodan Milošević, Goran Pichler

Using the resonance 2s-2p excitation of the Li atom in a lithium-cadmium vapour mixture we observed cadmium atoms excited to very high energy levels such as 6s 3 S 1 , 5d 3 D J and 6p 1 P 1 . As the main excitation process we propose radiative collisions between excited lithium and ground state cadmium atoms followed by an energy-pooling collision between Cd( 3 P J ) atoms. The temporal evolution of intensities of selected lithium and cadmium atomic lines is simulated using a system of rate equations. We estimated the rate coefficient for the radiative collision Li(2p) + Cd(5 1 S 0 ) + h ν 670.8 nm + Δ E →Li(2s) + Cd(5 3 P 0 ), to be 6×10 -10 cm 3 s -1 at T = 965 K.

Carl A. Kocher, A.J. Smith