Abstract
An examination of the fluorescent process in simple and detailed models of multilevel atoms, expressed in terms of the parameter / where and are, respectively, the photoexcitation rate and the collisional excitation rate in the pumped resonance transition i-j, shows that three distinct regimes exist over the full range of this parameter which may be usefully exploited. The regimes are defined by I, /≲1; II, /≫1, ≪; III, /≫1, ≫, where is the collisional rate populating the source level i. Regime I is characterized by sensitivity of fluorescent-fluorescent line intensity ratios to the photoexcitation rate . Regime II is characterized, on the other hand, by insensitivity of these line ratios to . If regime III is reached, even fluorescent-nonfluorescent line ratios become independent of . A concrete application of the analysis has been made to the resonant photoexcitation of a carbonlike ion.
- Received 2 March 1987
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.37.1003
©1988 American Physical Society