Caesium 6P fine-structure mixing and quenching induced by collisions with ground-state caesium atoms and molecules
Mladen Movre, Vlasta Horvatić, Cedomil Vadla
Applying the cw laser fluorescence method, the cross sections for the fine structure mixing and quenching of the Cs 6P state, induced by collisions with ground-state caesium atoms and molecules, have been measured. Caesium atoms were optically excited to the 5D J states via quadrupole-allowed 6S 1/2 5D J transitions, while the resonance states were populated by the radiative and collisional 5D J 6P J transitions. The relative populations of the Cs 6P J sublevels, as well as ratio of the 5D 3/2 to 6P 3/2 populations, were measured as a function of the caesium ground-state number density. From these measurements we obtained the cross section of (14±5) × 10 -16 cm 2 at T = 585 K for the process Cs(6P 1/2 ) Cs(6P 3/2 ) induced by collisions with ground-state caesium atoms. The applied experimental approach enabled the determination of the effective spontaneous rates for the 6P J states which are in agreement with the predictions of Holstein's theory. The cross sections for quenching of 6P J by caesium atoms and molecules were measured at T = 635 K and the obtained values are (1.6±1.4) × 10 -16 cm 2 and (1210±260) × 10 -16 cm 2 , respectively. Using recently calculated Cs*+Cs potentials we performed an analysis which shows a good agreement between the measured values and the theoretical estimates.
Journal of Physics B Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics•Sep 17, 1999•8 citations