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Physical Review A

Population of high-Lsulfur Rydberg levels by ion–Rydberg-atom charge exchange

F. J. Deck, Eric A. Hessels, S. R. Lundeen

Published Dec 1, 1993• 25 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A fast beam of sulfur Rydberg atoms is formed by charge exchange from an 11-keV beam of ${\mathrm{S}}^{+}$ ions in a crossed thermal rubidium beam, laser-excited to the 10F or 8F levels. Population of specific n=9,10 sulfur Rydberg levels is studied by selective excitation with a Doppler-tuned ${\mathrm{CO}}_{2}$ laser followed by field ionization. Complete spectral resolution of levels with L\ensuremath{\ge}4 allows a direct study of the populations in specific nL levels and reveals distinctly nonstatistical distributions of population in L. The results are compared with predictions of a classical Monte Carlo three-body collision theory, revealing some similarities, but also clear differences.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.48.4400

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Journal of Physics B Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics•Sep 14, 1995•34 citations
A fast beam of sulfur Rydberg atoms is formed by charge exchange from an 11-keV beam of S+{\mathrm{S}}^{+}S+ ions in a crossed thermal rubidium beam, laser-excited to the 10F or 8F levels. Population of specific n=9,10 sulfur Rydberg levels is studied by selective excitation with a Doppler-tuned CO2{\mathrm{CO}}_{2}CO2​ laser followed by field ionization. Complete spectral resolution of levels with L\ensuremath{\ge}4 allows a direct study of the populations in specific nL levels and reveals distinctly nonstatistical distributions of population in L. The results are compared with predictions of a classical Monte Carlo three-body collision theory, revealing some similarities, but also clear differences.
Charge-transfer collisions between slow multiply charged ions and highly excited Rydberg atoms have been studied to determine the details of the internal energy transfer accompanying charge exchange. The experiment uses lasers to define uniquely the binding energies of both initial and final states of the collision, thereby eliminating the ambiguity inherent in the selective field ionization method used for previous studies. The results clearly characterize the capture energetics over the range of ion charge q=1−−11q=1--11q=1−−11 and velocity v=0.031−−0.138a.u.v=0.031--0.138\mathrm{a}.\mathrm{u}.v=0.031−−0.138a.u. The measurements are in very good agreement with predictions of the classical trajectory Monte Carlo method, but not with predictions of other classical models.
Charge transfer collisions between slow ions and Rydberg atoms have been studied for ion charges q=1−−4q\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}1--4q=1−−4, using resonant laser excitation to detect specific energy states of the collision products. The data collected show a clear resonance in the capture cross section to a particular energy state as the binding energy of the Rydberg target is varied. The resonance position differs significantly from the predictions of the classical overbarrier model, and its width becomes very small (0.025 eV) at the lowest velocities studied.
Inelastic n-changing collisions play an important role in the evolution of Rydberg atoms into ultracold plasmas. However, for the initially intermediate n (n ∼ 40) Rydberg states, these collisions can hardly be observed due to the low electron temperature in ultracold plasmas. In this work, we designed an experimental scheme to facilitate collisions between free electrons at 1.5 eV and intermediate n Rydberg atoms. Using the field ionization technique, we measured the state distributions resulting from the evolution of initially cold rubidium atoms in the 45P3/2 Rydberg state. The experimentally obtained probability of inelastic collisions excitation agrees well with the Monte Carlo simulation results. In addition, our experimental results indicate that the n-changing population induced by hot electrons is significant for lower nP Rydberg states. Our work plays a significant role in calculating the rates of electron-ion three-body recombination in ultracold plasmas.
The excited products of collisions between xenon atoms and Na(nd)\mathrm{Na}(\mathrm{nd})Na(nd) atoms with n=37n=37n=37 and n=42n=42n=42 have been investigated by use of selective field ionization (SFI). It is observed that, at an ionizing-field slew rate of \ensuremath{\sim} 109{10}^{9}109 V/cm sec, most of the collision products follow predominantly diabatic paths to ionization which occurs at field strengths consistent with those predicted by quantum mechanical tunneling calculations. Detailed analysis of the SFI data indicates that the collision products have a wide (possibly complete) range of values of lll and mj{m}_{j}mj​, although it is not clear whether the observed distribution results from single or multiple collisions. No evidence of nnn-changing collisions was seen. Similar data for collisions involving Xe(nf)\mathrm{Xe}(\mathrm{nf})Xe(nf) atoms are briefly discussed.