Associative ionization in collisions between Na(3P3/2) and Cs(6P3/2)

Abstract
The results of an experiment on the associative ionization collision between sodium and cesium excited atoms are reported. The atoms are excited by two resonant cw lasers to the 3P3/2 and 6P3/2 levels, respectively, and the formation of the NaCs+ molecular ion is observed. The rate constant of such process has been measured relative to the known rate constant of sodium associative ionization and its value resulted in K=(5.4±3.2)×1011 cm3 s1.