Population transfer to inner shell excited states by laser assisted collisions
Abstract
The collisions between laser excited atoms, defined as `energy-pooling', produce efficient population transfer to higher excited states having energy close to the sum of the laser excited level energies. This process has been widely studied in alkali atoms and, more recently, in elements of the IIA and IIB atomic group. We report here the first experimental observation of this energy-pooling process in a rare earth element (Yb). Ytterbium has the 4f(14)6s(2)((1)S(0)) ground state electronic configuration, having a closed N shell. The energy-pooling collisions between Yb atoms in the metastable (3)P(1) state, excited by a c. w. ring dye laser, populate states having different electronic configurations. In particular, states having an excited inner shell electron are populated very efficiently. Therefore the energy-pooling process applied to Yb allows to investigate the interactions between inner and outer shells by laser spectroscopy, while for the most part of the atomic elements less bright and more complex sources like synchrotron radiation are necessary.
- Publication:
-
NASA STI/Recon Technical Report A
- Pub Date:
- 1993
- Bibcode:
- 1993STIA...9587780G
- Keywords:
-
- Atomic Collisions;
- Atomic Excitations;
- Electron Orbitals;
- Laser Applications;
- Laser Beams;
- Radiation Effects;
- Spectroscopic Analysis;
- Ytterbium;
- Continuous Wave Lasers;
- Dye Lasers;
- Ground State;
- Laser Spectroscopy;
- Metastable State;
- Ring Lasers;
- Tunable Lasers;
- Lasers and Masers