Studies of Rydberg Atomic Xenon and Molecular Hydrogen

This work has studied the Rydberg states of atomic xenon and molecular hydrogen by laser spectroscopy of a thermal metastable atomic or molecular beam. Both xenon atoms and H(,2) molecules have structured cores, resulting in similarities of their spectra. The existence of metastable states in both systems allows us to use the same experimental techniques and almost the same experimental arrangement to carry out studies in both xenon and in H(,2). Using the metastable-beam laser-excitation technique, we have observed even-parity bound np 1/2 (,1) and nf 3/2 (,1) Rydberg series in xenon to n = 51 and n = 82, respectively. We have also studied both even- and odd-parity autoionizing Rydberg states extensively. The even-parity np' 1/2 (,1) and np' 3/2 (,1) autoionizing Rydberg series in xenon have been studied from n = 7 to n = 17. Six odd-parity ns' and nd' autoionizing series containing a total of over 290 levels in xenon have been measured by two-photon laser excitation. This work also investigated the Stark effect for the bound Rydberg states of xenon in the vicinity of n = 17 and Stark-induced 6s-6d transitions in xenon. Unlike most of the previous work done on H(,2), we have observed and measured the bound and autoionizing triplet nd Rydberg states of para- and ortho-H(,2) (previous experimental data on H(,2) were mostly that of p states of singlet H(,2)). In studies of Rydberg states in H(,2), we have carried out calculations based on a long range ab initio Hund's case -d model to predict the transition frequencies and to identify observed transition peaks. Ten Rydberg series of more than 400 levels in atomic xenon and seven triplet Rydberg series of 150 levels in molecular hydrogen have been observed and measured in this work. These measurements of Rydberg states in atomic xenon and molecular hydrogen provided extensive new experimental data for future MQDT (multichannel quantum defect theory) analysis.