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Quenching and excitation transfers in n = 3 lithium sublevels

1982; American Institute of Physics; Volume: 26; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1103/physreva.26.1431

0556-2791

C. Chaleard, B. Dubreuil, A. Catherinot,

Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates

Quenching and excitation-transfer processes involving the $3^{2}P$ and $3^{2}D$ states of the Li atom are studied in a temperature-controlled heat-pipe oven with the use of two-step laser excitation of the $4^{2}S$ state followed by radiative cascade towards the $3^{2}P$ state. Numerical identification of the collision-induced $3^{2}D\ensuremath{\rightarrow}2^{2}P$ fluorescence with a three-level model allows the determination of radiative coefficients and collisional rate coefficients. $4^{2}S$, $3^{2}D$, and $3^{2}P$ radiative lifetimes are found to be in agreement with accepted values. Quenching and excitation transfer strongly depend on the colliding atoms. Rate coefficients for the $3^{2}D\ensuremath{\rightarrow}3^{2}P$ excitation processes induced by Li, He, and Ne ground-state atoms are measured in the ratio 1.05: 0.23: 0.02 expressed in ${10}^{\ensuremath{-}9}$ ${\mathrm{sec}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ ${\mathrm{cm}}^{3}$.