Spectroscopy of Autoionizing Doubly-Excited States in Ultracold Na2 Molecules Produced by Photoassociation

Published

April 1, 2000

Author(s)

A Amelink, Kevin Jones, Paul D. Lett, P Van der Straten, H G. Heideman

Abstract

We have performed photoassociation spectroscopy to study the doubly-excited states of Na₂ involved in the associative ionization of colliding Na(3P) atoms. Rovibrational levels of two doubly-excited potentials connected to the P_3/2 + P_3/2 asymptote, one of O_u and one of _u symmetry, have been identified. These two doubly-excited potentials dominate the route to ionization used in photoassociation experiments of cold Na. Binding energies and rotational constants for all the vibrational levels with binding energies < 50 GHz have been measured. The asymptotic potentials and short range ionization probabilities are extracted from the data.

Citation

Physical Review A (Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics)

Volume

61

Issue

No. 4

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

autioionization, diatomic molecules, doubly-excited states, laser cooling, laser spectroscopy, pho9toassociation spectroscopy, sodium spectroscopy

Citation

Amelink, A. , Jones, K. , Lett, P. , Van der Straten, P. and Heideman, H. (2000), Spectroscopy of Autoionizing Doubly-Excited States in Ultracold Na₂ Molecules Produced by Photoassociation, Physical Review A (Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics) (Accessed October 15, 2025)