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Physical Review A

Field ionization of excited states of potassium

Thomas F. Gallagher, William E. Cooke

Published Feb 1, 1979• 26 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We have studied the electric field ionization of excited states of K and have found that it is similar in its gross features to the field ionization of Na. However, there are clear differences which are particularly important for applications. We attribute the differences to the coupling of states of different $|{m}_{l}|$ in high electric fields by the spin-orbit interaction of the K $p$ states.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.19.694

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We have studied the electric field ionization of excited states of K and have found that it is similar in its gross features to the field ionization of Na. However, there are clear differences which are particularly important for applications. We attribute the differences to the coupling of states of different ∣ml∣|{m}_{l}|∣ml​∣ in high electric fields by the spin-orbit interaction of the K ppp states.
The large spin-orbit interaction in Rb and Cs strongly couples states of different ∣ml∣|{m}_{l}|∣ml​∣ during the passage from low to high field during the electric field ionization of excited states. The result of this is that the technically accessible rise times which yield very selective ionization of Na yield much lower selectivity for Rb and Cs.
In the electric field ionization of highly excited sss, ppp, and ddd states of Na, we have observed one, two, and three ionization thresholds, respectively, reflecting the number of high-field ∣ml∣|{m}_{l}|∣ml​∣ states coming from the sss, ppp, and ddd states. Our observations indicate that the passage from low to intermediate field is adiabatic, and as a consequence we are able to achieve selective ionization of essentially degenerate low-field ∣ml∣|{m}_{l}|∣ml​∣ fine-structure levels.
Electric field ionization of excited Na atoms by microwave fields between 12 and 15 GHz exhibits several interesting phenomena. The ∣m∣=0and1|m|=0 \mathrm{and} 1∣m∣=0and1 states may be ionized with a very low microwave field, $\ensuremath{\sim}\frac{1}{{3n}^{5}}$, corresponding to the point at which the nnn and n+1n+1n+1 Stark manifolds of principal quantum numbers nnn and n+1n+1n+1 intersect. The ionization occurs by an atom's making a succession of Landau-Zener transitions to higher-lying states, finally reaching the classical ionization limit. The ∣m∣=2|m|=2∣m∣=2 states, on the other hand, ionize at a very high microwave field, $\ensuremath{\sim}\frac{1}{{9n}^{4}}$. Both these observations and the more familiar static or low-frequency result of ionization by a field of $\ensuremath{\sim}\frac{1}{{16n}^{4}}$ are all consistent with ionization in a completely classical fashion. The apparent differences are due to the dynamics of passing from zero field to a high ionizing field.