We report the effect of static electric fields on the collisional ionization of highly excited sodium atoms by HBr. The binding energy dependence of the collisional ionization cross section is measured at zero field and in static electric fields up to that point at which the atom field ionizes. The applied electric field lowers the ionization threshold of the atom from its zero field value. Therefore an atom near the ionization threshold in an electric field is of smaller size than a free field atom with the same binding energy. Thus measuring the binding energy dependence of the cross section at different values of the electric field allows us to study the effects of the physical size of the atom on the cross section. The effect of the electric field was to lower the measured ionization cross section. However, the binding energy dependence of the cross section remains unchanged at the level of our measurement accuracy. The measured cross sections are larger for larger atoms, exhibit a drop with increasing binding energy characteristic of rotational to electronic excitation transfer, and are of order 10minus;12ndash;10minus;11cm2. A simple calculation based on dipole (Jrarr;thinsp;Jminus;1) excitation transfer from the molecule to the atom predicts, with good agreement, the binding energy dependence of the cross section. The electric field dependence of the data however, is not shown in the theory.
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