Observation of Laser-Induced Penning and Associative Ionization in Li-Li Collisions

Abstract
We report the direct observation of Li+6, Li+7, Li2+13, Li2+14 arising from single collisions between beams of lithium atoms in the presence of a laser field. Although the relative intensity of atomic ions reflects the natural isotopic abundance, a pronounced enrichment of Li2+13 relative to Li2+14 is observed.