Photoassociation of metastable helium

A. S. Dickinson; F. X. Gadéa; T. Leininger

doi:10.1209/epl/i2004-10491-y

All issues

Volume 70 / No 3 (May 2005)

Europhys. Lett., 70 3 (2005) 320-326

Abstract

Issue		Europhys. Lett. Volume 70, Number 3, May 2005


Page(s)		320 - 326
Section		Atomic and molecular physics
DOI		https://doi.org/10.1209/epl/i2004-10491-y
Published online		25 March 2005

Europhys. Lett., 70 (3), pp. 320-326 (2005)

Photoassociation of metastable helium

A. S. Dickinson¹, F. X. Gadéa² and T. Leininger³

¹ School of Natural Sciences (Physics), University of Newcastle - Newcastle, NE1 7RU UK
² The Nano Science Group, CEMES, CNRS UPR 8011 29 rue J. Marvig, BP 4347, F-31055 Toulouse, France
³ Laboratoire de Physique Quantique, UMR 5626 du CNRS, Université Paul Sabatier 118 Route de Narbonne, F-31062 Toulouse Cedex 04, France

Received: 16 December 2004
Accepted: 10 March 2005

Abstract

A theoretical study is performed for the photoassociation of metastable helium. Combining short-range, high-level, ab initio calculations for ${}^5\Sigma_{g/u}^+$ and ${}^5\Pi_{g/u}$ symmetries and long-range behaviour, better described in Hund's case (c), potential-energy curves for attractive, ${}^5\Sigma_{u}^+$ and ${}^5\Pi_{g}$ , as well as repulsive, ${}^5\Pi_{u}$ and ${}^5\Sigma_{g}^+$ , states of quintet metastable helium molecules dissociating to $2\,{}^3S+2\,{}^3P$ are obtained. Taking into account the atomic spin-orbit couplings, vibrational levels are derived for near-dissociation levels at the ${}^3P_2$ asymptote. Comparison with results from three recent photoassociation experiments obtained under different conditions (μK temperatures with spin alignment and mK temperatures without) allowed for an assignation of about three quarters of the observed levels. The robustness of the vibrational numbering is confirmed by testing a modification of the short-range potentials.

PACS: 31.50.Df – Potential energy surfaces for excited electronic states / 32.80.Pj – Optical cooling of atoms; trapping / 33.20.Kf – Visible spectra

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