Seiler Christian, Hogan Stephen D, Merkt Frédéric
Laboratory of Physical Chemistry ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland.
Chimia (Aarau). 2012;66(4):208-11. doi: 10.2533/chimia.2012.208.
The interaction between inhomogeneous electric fields and the large electric dipole moments of atoms and molecules in Rydberg states of high principal quantum number can be used to efficiently accelerate and decelerate atoms and molecules in the gas phase. We describe here how hydrogen atoms and molecules initially moving with velocities of ∼600 m/s in supersonic beams can be decelerated to zero velocity and loaded into electric traps. The long observation times that are made possible by the electrostatic trapping enables one to study slow relaxation processes. Experiments are presented in which we have observed photoionization processes and transitions between Rydberg states induced by blackbody radiation at temperatures between 10 K and 300 K on a time scale of several milliseconds. Comparison of these processes in Rydberg states of H and H(2) suggests the importance, in H(2), of collisional processes and of the process of blackbody-radiation-induced predissociation.
非均匀电场与处于高主量子数里德堡态的原子和分子的大电偶极矩之间的相互作用，可用于在气相中高效地加速和减速原子及分子。我们在此描述了，初始以约600米/秒的速度在超声速束流中运动的氢原子和分子如何能被减速至零速度并被加载到电阱中。静电俘获所实现的长观测时间，使人们能够研究缓慢的弛豫过程。文中展示了一些实验，在这些实验中，我们在几毫秒的时间尺度上，观测了在10 K至300 K温度下由黑体辐射诱导的里德堡态之间的光电离过程和跃迁。对H和H₂里德堡态中这些过程的比较表明，在H₂中，碰撞过程以及黑体辐射诱导的预解离过程具有重要性。
