M.B. Campbell, T.J. Bensky, and R.R. Jones
Abstract:The oscillation between bound-state configurations in a rapidly autoionizing three-body Coulomb system has been directly observed for the first time. Using a 500 fsec laser pulse, calcium atoms are excited to the pure 4p_{3/2}15d two- electron configuration at an energy greater than 3 eV above the ionization limit. Due to configuration interaction, the electrons scatter coherently into multiple bound and continuum configurations. The oscillation between the degenerate 4p_{1/2}nd and 4p_{3/2}nd modes as well as autoionization into the 4sel, 3d_{3/2}el, and 3d_{5/2}el continua are observed explicitly using bound- state interferometry. The measured time dependence of the 4p_{3/2}15d character is in excellent agreement with the Fourier transform of the frequency domain excitation cross section. To our knowledge, this is the first experimental demonstration of the equivalence of time and frequency domain spectra in a multiconfigurational system involving bound and continuum channels.
Status: Published Phys. Rev. A 57, 4616 (1998).
Download
this paper