Line-broadening studies of excited diatomic homoatomic and heteroatomic Rydberg molecules formed by potassium, rubidium, and cesium atoms

C. Vadla, V. Horvatic, and K. Niemax
Phys. Rev. A 80, 052506 – Published 19 November 2009

Abstract

Recent absorption measurements of the self-broadening of Rb principal series lines [C. H. Greene, E. L. Hamilton, H. Crowell, C. Vadla, and K. Niemax, Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 233002 (2006)] verified the existence of minima in highly excited long-range potentials of Rb2 which were predicted theoretically as bound Rydberg molecule [C. H. Greene, A. S. Dickinson, and H. R. Sadeghpour, Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 2458 (2000)]. The present paper reports on the extension of these experimental studies to principal series lines of K broadened by K as well as Cs broadened by Cs. In addition, the broadening of some lower members of the K, Rb, and Cs principal line series due to heteroatomic interactions was investigated. The analysis of the measured satellite structures in the quasistatic line wings and their comparison to the previously published analogous data for Rb+Rb system lead to the conclusion that one can expect existence of potential minima in homo- and heteroatomic alkali-metal A+B systems in a wide range of principal quantum numbers, starting with K, Rb, and Cs excited to the third resonance states. The positions and strengths of the satellite structures indicate that the potential minima are due to scattering of the valence electron by ground-state perturbers.

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  • Received 30 July 2009

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.80.052506

©2009 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

C. Vadla1, V. Horvatic1,*, and K. Niemax2

  • 1Institute of Physics, Bijenicka 46, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
  • 2ISAS–Institute for Analytical Sciences, Technische Universität Dortmund, Bunsen Kirchhoff-Strasse 11, 44139 Dortmund, Germany

  • *Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; blecic@ifs.hr

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Vol. 80, Iss. 5 — November 2009

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