The radiative lifetime of metastable CO ($a^3\Pi, v=0$)

Joop J. Gilijamse; Steven Hoekstra; Samuel A. Meek; Markus Metsala; Sebastiaan Y. T. van de Meerakker; Gerard Meijer; Gerrit C. Groenenboom

doi:10.1063/1.2813888

The radiative lifetime of metastable CO ($a^3\Pi, v=0$)

Atomic Physics 2008-01-07 v2 Chemical Physics

Authors: Joop J. Gilijamse , Steven Hoekstra , Samuel A. Meek , Markus Metsala , Sebastiaan Y. T. van de Meerakker , Gerard Meijer , Gerrit C. Groenenboom

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Abstract

We present a combined experimental and theoretical study on the radiative lifetime of CO in the $a^3\Pi_{1,2}, v=0$ state. CO molecules in a beam are prepared in selected rotational levels of this metastable state, Stark-decelerated and electrostatically trapped. From the phosphorescence decay in the trap, the radiative lifetime is measured to be $2.63\pm0.03$ ms for the $a^3\Pi_1, v=0, J=1$ level. From spin-orbit coupling between the $a^3\Pi$ and the $A^1\Pi$ state a 20% longer radiative lifetime of 3.16 ms is calculated for this level. It is concluded that coupling to other $^1\Pi$ states contributes to the observed phosphorescence rate of metastable CO.

Keywords

radiative lifetime metastable CO phosphorescence decay Stark deceleration electrostatic trapping spin-orbit coupling

Cite

@article{arxiv.0710.2240,
  title  = {The radiative lifetime of metastable CO ($a^3\Pi, v=0$)},
  author = {Joop J. Gilijamse and Steven Hoekstra and Samuel A. Meek and Markus Metsala and Sebastiaan Y. T. van de Meerakker and Gerard Meijer and Gerrit C. Groenenboom},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0710.2240},
  year   = {2008}
}

Comments

replaced with final version, added journal reference

The radiative lifetime of metastable CO ($a^3\Pi, v=0$)

Abstract

Keywords

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