Abstract
The absolute cross sections for the competing decay-channel fluorescence, dissociation, and ionization of photoexcited long-lived superexcited molecular levels have been measured from the ionization threshold of up to the H() H() dissociation limit. The total and partial natural widths of these levels have been determined. Good agreement is found with first principles calculations carried out with the multichannel quantum defect theory for excited levels of symmetry, which represent of the levels studied experimentally. The calculations reproduce the balance between the competing decay processes as well as its substantial evolution from level to level.
6 More- Received 21 October 2010
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.82.062511
© 2010 The American Physical Society