Beam experiments with state selected Ne(3Po,3P2) metastable atoms

J. G. C. Tempelaars, R. J. W. Stas, P. G. M. Sebel +2 more

Jose E. Velazco, Donald W. Setser

J. Ganz, B Lewandowski, Augustin Siegel +4 more

State- and isotope-selective perpendicular excitation of a thermal energy, mixed metastable Ne(2p53s 3P2, 3P0) atom beam with a polarised 640.2 nm laser beam yields a well defined sample of 20Ne(2p53p 3D3) atoms, which are ionised by UV photons (wavelength range 331-412 nm). Core-switching processes are found to be negligible: autoionisation features in the region between the two Ne+(2P3/2,1/2) fine-structure thresholds and photoelectrons corresponding to Ne+(2P1/2) ions could not be detected. The application of these results for the production of state-selected, polarised Ne+(2p5 2P3/2) ions is briefly discussed.

Nikolai V. Karlov, B. B. Krynetskiǐ, В. А. Мишин +2 more

In the Crossed atomic and molecular beams the chemical reactions of ytterbium and europium atoms with HCI molecules were observed at the laser excitation of atoms. At the excitation of ytterbium metastable states 3po and 3P2 an indicated amount of the reaction product was increased by a factor of three as compared to the case of 3P1 state excitation.

Joachim Lorenzen, Hartmut Hotop, M.‐W. Ruf

Jules Grucker, J. Baudon, J.‐C. Karam +4 more

Coherent atom optics experiments making use of an ultra‐narrow beam of fast metastable atoms generated by metastability exchange are reported. The transverse coherence of the beam (coherence radius of 1.7 μm for He*, 1.2 μm for Ne*, 0.87 μm for Ar*) is demonstrated via the atomic diffraction by a non‐magnetic 2μm‐period reflection grating. The combination of the non‐scalar van der Waals (vdW) interaction with the Zeeman interaction generated by a static magnetic field gives rise to “vdW‐Zeeman” transitions among Zeeman sub‐levels. Exo‐energetic transitions of this type are observed with Ne*(3P2) atoms traversing a copper micro‐slit grating. They can be used as a tunable beam splitter in an inelastic Fresnel bi‐prism atom interferometer.