LOPE@ECE - R&D: Excited Dimer Spectroscopy

Excited Dimer Spectroscopy

The Lab has developed laser spectroscopic techniques which have resulted in the discovery of Rydberg series in the rare gas dimers, and the first observation of bound<free (photoassociation) spectra of thermal atomic pairs. Our current work involves using a pulsed corona discharge to stimulate thermal pairs of Neon atoms from the dissociative ground state into a metastable bound excited state. Then, using a Nd:YAG pumped tunable dye laser, we can vary the laser input into the bound state and then monitor the Laser Induced Fluorescence (LIF) emitted as the molecules decay from the quasi-bound excited states back to the ground state. We can then analyze the relative intensity and width of these bound->free transitions to obtain insight into the internal structure of these simple molecules which serve as models for much more complicated diatomic molecules.

The above shows potential energy curves versus inter nuclear spacing for Zn atoms in diatomic zinc

Selected Optical Physics Lab Publications on Rg2 Spectroscopy:

C.M. Herring, S.B. Kim, J.G. Eden, and M.L. Ginter, J. Chem. Phys. 101 (6), 4561, 1994.

S.B. Kim, D.J. Kane, and J.G. Eden, Physical Review Letters 68(9) 1311, 1992, "Interactions of Ne2 Rydberg states with Dissociation and Ne2+ Ionization Continua"

S.B. Kim, C.M. Herring, and J.G. Eden, J. Chem. Phys. 96(2) 1016, 1992, "Electronic Structure of Ne2 below the first ionization limit"

S. B. Kim, D. J. Kane, and J. G. Eden, Physical Review Letters, 68(9) 1311, 1992, "Interactions of Ne2 Rydberg States with Dissociation and Ne2+ Ionizaion Continua"

S. B. Kim, C. M. Herring, J.G. Eden, and M.L. Ginter, J. Chem. Phys. 96(2), 1016, 1992.

D.J. Kane, S.B. Kim, D.C. Shannon, C.M. Herring, J.G. Eden, and M.L. Ginter, J. Chem. Phys. 96(9), 6407, 1992.

S.B. Kim, D.J. Kane, J.G. Eden, and M.L. Ginter, J. Chem. Phys. 94(1) 145, 1991, "Spectroscopic characterizations of the 3Sg+ and 3Pg components of nf complexes of Ne2 with n=4-6"

D. J. Kane, S. B. Kim, J.G. Eden, and M.L. Ginter, J. Chem. Phys. 95(6) 3877, 1991, "Laser excitation spectroscopy of Ne2 Rydberg states observed in the afterglow of a corona discharge"

D.J. Kane, C.J. Zietkiewicz, and J.G. Eden, Phys. Rev. A 39(9) 4906, 1989, "Observation of rotationally resolved inter-Rydberg-state spectra of 20Ne2 and 22Ne2 in the visible region"