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Angular-momentum distributions following impact of slow ions on Na([ital nd]) Rydberg atoms

Journal Article · · Physical Review A; (United States)
;  [1]
  1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40506-0055 (United States)

The degree of dipole-forbidden [ital l] change in Na(26[ital d]) and Na(28[ital d]) Rydberg atoms caused by slow Na[sup +] ion impact at reduced velocity [ital [tilde v]]=0.1--0.9 has been measured. Na[sup +] beam energies 7.3--684 eV were used. Previous measurements were greatly improved by reducing stray electric fields in the Rydberg collision region to about 10 mV/cm. The distributions of final-angular-momentum states were analyzed using directly measured diabatic selective-field-ionization profiles for [ital l]=3, 4, and 5. [ital l]-change results in Na(26[ital d]) and Na(28[ital d]) targets are very similar and clearly show an increasing amount of dipole-forbidden behavior for decreasing reduced velocities [ital [tilde v]] and partial agreement with the coupled-channel calculation of Beigman and Syrkin (Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz. 89, 400 (1985) [Sov. Phys. JETP 62, 226 (1985)]). The dipole-forbidden process is the main channel for angular-momentum change in ion--Rydberg-atom collisions at [ital [tilde v]][le]0.7. At very low energy ([ital [tilde v]][le]0.3) the measurements demonstrate that the final-state distributions are dominated by very high angular-momentum states.

OSTI ID:
6648672
Journal Information:
Physical Review A; (United States), Journal Name: Physical Review A; (United States) Vol. 47:5; ISSN 1050-2947; ISSN PLRAAN
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English