Field-induced stabilisation of Stark states in the rubidium atom

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The absolute value of the lifetimes and their field dependences have been measured for two Stark states in the pi and sigma photoionisation spectra of rubidium. Thanks to a systematic detailed analysis of the Stark states and to the study of the time of arrival of the produced ions at the detector, an important increase of the lifetime has been observed in a very narrow range of field strengths. This stabilisation is attributed to a strong perturbation, due to the spin-orbit interaction, coupling the observed stable states mod ml mod =1 or 2 with slightly unstable states mod ml mod =0 or 1, which cannot be observed in the pi or sigma spectra.