FINE-STRUCTURE-CHANGING COLLISION CROSS-SECTIONS WITHIN THE LOW-LYING N2D STATES OF RUBIDIUM INDUCED BY GROUND-STATE RUBIDIUM ATOMS

The thermal cross sections for inelastic transfer of excited rubidium atoms from the n D522 to the n D322 fine-structure state caused by fine-structure-changing collisions with ground-state rubidium atoms have been measured by selective stepwise excitation of the rubidium atoms and observation of the resulting fluorescence. The cross sections (in units of 10-14 cm2) for n being 5-9 are 2.90.6, 6.91.4, 11.52.3, 17.13.0, and 26.05.0, respectively. The fine-structure-changing cross sections are of the order of the geometrical cross sections and increase slightly less than (n*)4 for the low-lying n D2 states studied. 1984 The American Physical Society.

FINE-STRUCTURE-CHANGING COLLISION CROSS-SECTIONS WITHIN THE LOW-LYING N2D STATES OF RUBIDIUM INDUCED BY GROUND-STATE RUBIDIUM ATOMS Academic Article