Indirect spin-orbit interaction in high-L Rydberg states with {sup 2}S{sub 1/2} cores
- Department of Physics, Colorado State University, Ft. Collins, Colorado 80523, USA (United States)
In high-L Rydberg states, where exchange interactions are of negligible size, spin-orbit interactions are expected to determine the energy differences between states of different spin orientations. This is well studied in the case of helium, where it results in a fourfold splitting of each high-L term, coming from the two electrons' spin-orbit interactions. A similar structure might be expected in heavier Rydberg states, whose core ion is a {sup 2}S{sub 1/2} state. However, observations in barium Rydberg states and recent observations in Rydberg states of Si{sup 2+} reveal significant deviations from this expectation. Both can be explained as an indirect effect of spin-orbit interactions in virtual excitations of the core ion. A perturbative treatment predicts an indirect spin-orbit interaction for the Rydberg state proportional to the inverse sixth power of the Rydberg electron's radial coordinate. The significance of this term, relative to the direct magnetic interactions, varies by more than six orders of magnitude between the three systems studied, helium, Si{sup 2+}, and barium.
- OSTI ID:
- 20640052
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review. A, Vol. 68, Issue 2; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.68.022510; (c) 2003 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1050-2947
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Indirect spin-orbit K splittings in strontium
Studies of singlet Rydberg series of LiH derived from Li(nl) + H(1s), with n ≤ 6 and l ≤ 4