Polarization dependence of resonant multiphoton ionization in atomic mercury

Abstract

The polarization dependences of a number of resonant multiphoton ionizations in atomic Hg have been studied experimentally and theoretically. Good agreement between theory and experiment is found from which quantitive information about relative ionization cross sections from excited states has been deduced.

Polarization dependence of resonant multiphoton ionizations on 1S0 and 1,3D2 states in atomic mercury

“…The lowest order theory from ref. 3 does not take this effect into account. In the measurement of the polarization dependence of the 6d ID2 resonance, we observed several features that were not observed for the other resonances.…”

“…From ref. 3 we calculate the total multiphoton ionization s~gnal intensity, Id for the 4 + 1 photon process resonant on ID2 and 3~2 levels to be…”

“…The measured polarization dependence for the 's3D2 resonances should be a linear superposition of these two curves. By comparing the observed ionization dependence on polarization with that predicted theoretically by [3] we originally planned to deduce relative values of the cross sections, i.e., ud j.p /ud + f . AS we explain later, the nonlinear processes present in our experiments make [3] invalid in describing the data.…”

“…By comparing the observed ionization dependence on polarization with that predicted theoretically by [3] we originally planned to deduce relative values of the cross sections, i.e., ud j.p /ud + f . AS we explain later, the nonlinear processes present in our experiments make [3] invalid in describing the data. Our observations of the photoionization signals resonant on the 6d1D2, 6d3D2, 7d1D2, 7d3D2 levels are shown in Figs.…”

“…Such work has been reviewed recently by Leuchs and Walther (2). Dalby et al (3) have studied resonant multiphoton ionization in mercury as a function of the polarization of the exciting laser light. Their theoretical calculations have shown the dependence of the total ionization on the light polarization to be sensitive to certain relative photoionization cross sections.…”