Unusually large polarizabilities of excited states in barium
Abstract
Electric polarizabilities of several low-J even-parity states of atomic barium in the range 35,600 to 36,000 cm-1 are investigated. The states of interest are excited (in an atomic beam) via an intermediate odd-parity state with a sequence of two laser pulses, and the polarizabilities are measured via direct spectroscopy on the second-stage transition. Several states have tensor and scalar polarizabilities that exceed the values that might be expected from the known energy levels of barium by more than two order of magnitude. The observations suggest existence of as yet unidentified odd-parity energy states whose position is predicted to ∼ 0.5 cm-1.
- Publication:
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APS Division of Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- May 2003
- Bibcode:
- 2003APS..DMP.N3005L