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Physical Review A

Experimental observation of angular correlation between Rydberg electrons in the Ban’l’nlautoionizing series

R. R. Jones, Thomas F. Gallagher

Published Sep 1, 1990• 37 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We have observed the Ba n'${\mathit{p}}_{1/2}$np and n'${\mathit{p}}_{1/2}$nd double Rydberg series (n>60,n'0.75n) using a five-laser excitation scheme. A single photon excites the n'${\mathit{p}}_{1/2}$nl levels from an initially populated Ba 8${\mathit{s}}_{1/2}$nl autoionizing state. If there were no correlation between the two valence electrons, we would observe only the n'pnp or n'pnd states. However, we observe strong excitation to n'snl and n'dnl states as well. We observe virtually no n'snl and n'dnl states for n'0.4n. For n'>0.75n the Rydberg structure that is observed for the lower n' levels disappears into an apparently unstructured continuum.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.42.2655

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We report the observation of unusual doubly excited states of barium: Ba (5dj, 21c). One of the valence electrons of Ba is prepared in an oriented circular Rydberg state (n = 21, l = m = 20, denoted 21c) by the adiabatic crossed-fields method. The other electron is excited to a 6pj state which decays radiatively to a 5dj metastable level. The measured autoionization lifetime of Ba (5d5/2, 21c) is T ~ 1 μ s , whereas for Ba (5d3/2, 21c), τ is estimated to be longer than 400 μs. This very large difference of lifetimes between the fine-structure states of the inner electron has been analysed.
The present review is devoted to the recent advances performed in alkaline-earth atoms by the selective laser preparation of autoionizing asymmetrical double Rydberg states which have, so far, not been observed in natural environments. Because the great amount of flexibility achieved by the sequential laser electron excitations, a wide choice of two-electron situations have been investigated and analyzed which exhibit spectral features due to long-range effects of the Coulomb electron-electron repulsion. To overcome the autoionization broadening of the lines, double Rydberg states with a non-core penetrating high-ℓ outer electron were produced by combining temporal laser excitation technique with the electric-field switching method. The study of the spectral correlation signatures in Nsn ℓ double Rydberg states versus ℓ allow to understand their evolution from simple spectra (ℓ ⩾ 10) due to long-range dipole interaction to more complex data (ℓ ⩽ 7) induced by short-range multipole effects when two electrons start to influence more each other.
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