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Journal of Physics B Atomic and Molecular Physics

Collisional depopulation of rubidium Rydberg levels by rare gases

M Hugon, B. Sayer, P. R. Fournier, F. Gounand

Published Aug 14, 1982• 34 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The cross sections for the quenching of highly excited Rb(nS) (32<or=n<or=45) and Rb(nD) (30<or=n<or=41) states have been measured for the different rare gases. In most cases studied, the quenching cross sections seem rather constant or slightly decreasing with n for a given series and a given rare gas. The experimental data are compared with the results of calculations using various theoretical approaches. It is shown that in this range of large n values the main process responsible for the quenching is the Rydberg-electron-rare-gas interaction, as previously stated for lower n values (10<or=n<or=20).

DOI
10.1088/0022-3700/15/15/016

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The cross sections for the quenching of highly excited Rb(nS) (32<or=n<or=45) and Rb(nD) (30<or=n<or=41) states have been measured for the different rare gases. In most cases studied, the quenching cross sections seem rather constant or slightly decreasing with n for a given series and a given rare gas. The experimental data are compared with the results of calculations using various theoretical approaches. It is shown that in this range of large n values the main process responsible for the quenching is the Rydberg-electron-rare-gas interaction, as previously stated for lower n values (10<or=n<or=20).
The cross sections for quasi-elastic and inelastic collisional processes between rubidium in non-hydrogenic Rydberg nS and nD states and helium have been measured. The quenching cross section of the Rydberg levels seems to behave similarly for different series, it first increases with n and then reaches a maximum, which is more or less shifted towards low n values, depending on the proximity of the highly degenerate hydrogenic neighbouring levels. The authors' experimental results and those previously obtained are in fair agreement (within a factor of 3 in the worst cases) with the values computed using a simple theoretical approach only taking into account the Rydberg electron-helium interaction.
This paper reports the measurement of the depopulation cross sections of the Rb(ns) and Rb(nd) states by ND3{\mathrm{ND}}_{3}ND3​ (23\ensuremath{\le}n\ensuremath{\le}50). The experimental data are discussed with reference to previous work done on collisions between Rb(ns) and Rb(nd) states and NH3{\mathrm{NH}}_{3}NH3​.
The quenching cross sections of highly excited Rb $ns(25\ensuremath{\le}n\ensuremath{\le}45)$ and Rb $nd(23\ensuremath{\le}n\ensuremath{\le}44)$ states by CO, a weak polar molecule, are measured, and these experimental data are compared to theoretical predictions where the main process responsible for the quenching is taken to be the Rydberg-electron-CO interaction. It is shown that the long-range Rydberg-electron-molecular-dipole interaction is often dominant leading mainly to nnn-changing and, to a lesser extent, to Rydberg ionization via quasiresonant molecular rotational transitions. It is also shown that the Rydberg-${e}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ ---molecular-quadrupole interaction is negligible and the short-range interaction leading to lll-mixing processes is less efficient. The agreement between experimental and theoretical values is quite satisfactory.
We have measured total cross sections for the collisional depopulation of high-lying nP\mathrm{nP}nP states ($12\ensuremath{\le}n\ensuremath{\le}22$) of rubidium induced by thermal collisions with ground-state rubidium or rare-gas atoms. It is observed that for $n\ensuremath{\ge}14$ the rubidium-rare-gas cross sections do not vary with the principal quantum number, contrary to previous hypotheses. Our results are discussed using the simple argument of quasifree behavior of the valence electron involving either an elastic-scattering or a binary-encounter approach. However, the disagreement observed between the experimental and the computed cross sections suggests that a three-body approach is generally needed for a good understanding of collisional processes involving highly excited states.