Sub-Doppler two-photon-excitation Rydberg spectroscopy of atomic xenon: mass-selective studies of isotopic and hyperfine structure

Mitsuhiko Kono, Yabai He, Kenneth G H Baldwin, Brian J. Orr*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

7 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Mass-selective sub-Doppler two-photon excitation (TPE) spectroscopy is employed to resolve isotopic contributions for transitions to high-energy Rydberg levels of xenon in an atomic beam, using narrowband pulses of coherent ultraviolet light at 205-213 nm generated by nonlinear-optical conversion processes. Previous research (Kono et al 2013 J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 46 35401), has determined isotope energy shifts and hyperfine structure for 33 high-energy Rydberg levels of gas-phase xenon and accessed Rydberg levels at TPE energies in the range of 94 100-97 300 cm-1 with unprecedented spectroscopic resolution. The new isotopic-mass-resolved results were obtained by adding a pulsed free-jet atomic-beam source and a mass-selective time-of-flight detector to the apparatus in order to discern individual xenon isotopes and extract previously unresolved spectroscopic information. Resulting isotope energy shifts and hyperfine-coupling parameters are examined with regard to trends in principal quantum number n and in atomic angular-momentum quantum numbers, together with empirical and theoretical precedents for such trends.

Original languageEnglish
Article number065002
Pages (from-to)1-15
Number of pages15
JournalJournal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics
Volume49
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 28 Mar 2016

Keywords

  • hyperfine structure
  • isotope shifts
  • Rydberg states
  • high-resolution laser spectroscopy
  • mass spectrometry
  • nonlinear optics

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