Formation of supersonic beams of metastable mercury, Hg(6 3P). Kinetics of photoexcitation and intramultiplet quenching in a nozzle

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
A nitrogen‐seeded supersonic nozzle‐beam source of metastable mercury, Hg(6 3P0),isdescribed.Ground‐state(6 1S0)mercuryisexcited with 2537 Å resonance radiation to the 6 3P1 state, which is then converted via intramultiplet quenching to the 6 3P0 state collision with nitrogen (the carrier gas). The mercury beam is accelerated by the N2 seeding gas to a speed of 8×104 cm sec−1. Thus, the present source provides a beam of a single metastable state, Hg(6 3P0), with 4.67 eV of electronic excitation and 0.67 eV of translational energy. The metastable beam has been characterized and the kinetics of the over‐all photoexcitation and quenching process studied by a secondary electron (Auger) detector utilizing a potassium surface, and an electron‐bombardment ionizer, mass‐filter detector. Hg(6 3P0) beam intensities of 4×1012 atoms sr−1⋅sec−1 are obtained, based upon an (assumed) 5% efficiency for the Auger detector.