Penning Ionization in Collision of Fast Unexcited Rb Atoms with Ar Atoms

Tom J. Whitaker, Bruce A. Bushaw

Juan J. Omiste, Johannes Floß, Paul W. Brumer

Coherent control of reactive atomic and molecular collision processes remains elusive experimentally due to quantum interference-based requirements. Here, with insights from symmetry conditions, a viable method for controlling Penning and associative ionization in atomic collisions is proposed. Computational applications to He^{*}(^{3}S)-Li(^{2}S) and Ne^{*}(^{3}P_{2})-Ar(^{1}S_{0}) show extensive control over the ionization processes under experimentally feasible conditions.

M. Chéret, L. Barbier, W. Lindinger +1 more

Michael K. Shaffer

This dissertation presents the findings of two experimental investigations in ultracold atomic and molecular physics: The study of the dual species trap loss in a rubidium - metastable argon magneto-optical trap and the photoassociative spectroscopy of ultracold metastable argon. The interspecies trap loss rate coefficients have been measured for ultracold collisions between 85Rb and 40Ar* in a dual-species magneto-optical trap (MOT) and the two rates have been found to be approximately equal over the range of intensities studied with values of β'Rb–Ar* = 3.0 ± 1.3 × 10-11 cm3/s and β'Ar*–Rb = 1.9 ± 0.9 × 10-11 cm3/s where β' Rb–Ar* is the trap loss coefficient for Rb in the presence of Ar* and β'Ar*–Rb is the reciprocal term. In addition, the trap loss rate coefficient for cold collisions in a metastable argon MOT alone have been measured with an average value of β Ar* = 5.2 ± 1.6 × 10-10 cm3/s. Using a quadrupole mass spectrometer, the production of Ar +, Ar+2, Rb+, and RbAr+ ions in the dual MOT have been observed, clearly identifying heteronuclear Penning and associative ionization as trap loss mechanisms. In the second experiment, the first ever investigation of the photoassociative (PA) spectroscopy of Ar* has been made. The exploratory study focuses on PA spectroscopy near the 4s[3/2]2 + 4p[5/2]3 asymptote of the Ar2* diatomic molecule over a 10 GHz range red detuned of the atomic resonance. With a range of probe laser intensities from ∼ 102–105ISat, 12 resonances have been observed. The spectra have been analyzed using the near-dissociation LeRoy-Bernstein method. Through this analysis, the spectra seem to best correlate with excitations to the 5g state.

James H. Goble, William E. Hollingsworth, John S. Winn

The opening of a new channel of excitative Penning ionization by a collision-complex absorption of laser light has been observed in the system Ar*($^{3}P$) + Ca. Two relatively broad resonances at 5958 and 5990 \AA{} were found, corresponding to the production of ${\mathrm{Ca}}^{+}$($5p^{2}P_{\frac{3}{2}}$) and ${\mathrm{Ca}}^{+}$($5p^{2}P_{\frac{1}{2}}$), respectively. The data indicate that the laser-assisted Penning-ionization cross section to these states exceeds that of the field-free ionization to ${\mathrm{Ca}}^{+}$($4p^{2}P_{\frac{3}{2}}$).

M. Chéret, Annie Spielfiedel, Richard R. Durand +1 more