Penning and associative ionisation of highly excited rubidium atoms

Michel Chéret (1) , Luc Barbier (1) , Werner Lindinger (1, 2) , Robert Deloche (1)

1 Service de physique des atomes et des surfaces
2 Institut fur Experimentalphysik [Innsbruck]

Highly excited and resonant states are created in a rubidium vapour in order to study the collisional ionisation with the ground state and between these different excited species. A mass analysis allows us to separate the atomic and molecular channels. Penning ionisation with a resonant state is shown to have a great efficiency (rate coefficient greater than 10$^{-8}$ cm3 s$^{-1}$ for all the highly exited levels under study (6d, 8s, 7d). The associative ionisation rate coefficient between these excited atoms and a ground-state atom lies in the expected range, 10$^{-10}$ to 5 x 10$^{-10} $ cm$^3$ s$^{-1}$ and seems to be independent of $\it I$ and $\it j$ values.

Domains: Physics [physics]; Atomic Physics [physics.atom-ph]

Michel Chéret, Luc Barbier, Werner Lindinger, Robert Deloche. Penning and associative ionisation of highly excited rubidium atoms. Journal of Physics B: Atomic and Molecular Physics, 1982, 15, pp.3463 - 3477. ⟨10.1088/0022-3700/15/19/015⟩. ⟨cea-01498986⟩