Photoassociation of cesium atoms into  state at 

Institute of Physics - POB 304, HR-10000 Zagreb, Croatia

Received: 11 August 1995
Accepted: 22 November 1995

Abstract

We report absorption measurements in pure cesium vapor at high temperatures, when triplet absorption bands in the spectral interval 540–560 nm emerge within the singlet molecular bands which slowly diminish due to efficient thermal dissociation. The absorption bands have been identified as stemming from extrema in the -a difference potential curve. We performed a quasiclassical simulation which agrees well with experimental observation. Since the a state is only weakly bound, the observed absorption bands at 543.5 and 557 nm represent free-bound transitions or the photoassociation process.