Time-resolved double-resonance spectroscopy: Lifetime measurement of the 6(1) Sigma(+)(g)(7,31) electronic state of molecular sodium

摘要

We report on the lifetime measurement of the 6 (1)Sigma(+)(g) (7, 31) state of Na2 molecules, produced in a heatpipe oven, using a time-resolved spectroscopic technique. The 6 (1)Sigma(+)(g) (7, 31) level was populated by two-step two-color double resonance excitation via the intermediate A (1)Sigma(+)(u) (8, 30) state. The excitation scheme was done using two synchronized pulsed dye lasers pumped by a Nd: YAG laser operating at the second harmonics. The fluorescence emitted upon decay to the final state was measured using a time-correlated photon counting technique, as a function of argon pressure. From this, the radiative lifetime was extracted by extrapolating the plot to collision-free zero pressure. We also report the calculated radiative lifetimes of the Na-2 6(1)Sigma(+)(g) ro-vibrational levels in the range of v = 0-200 with J = 1 and J = 31 using the LEVEL program for bound-bound and the BCONT program for boundfree transitions. Our calculations reveal the importance of the bound-free transitions on the lifetime calculations and a large difference of about a factor of three between the J = 1 and J = 31 for the v = 40 and v = 100, respectively, due to the wavefunction alternating between having predominantly inner and outer well amplitude. Published by AIP Publishing.