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APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 86 » Issue 13
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 2758–2761 (2001)

Observation of Triplet Doubly Excited States in Single Photon Excitation from Ground State Helium

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F. Penent1,*, P. Lablanquie2, R. I. Hall1, M. Žitnik3, K. Bučar3, S. Stranges4, R. Richter5, M. Alagia6, P. Hammond7, and J. G. Lambourne8
1DIAM, Université P. & M. Curie, 75252 Paris Cedex 05, France
2LURE, Centre Universitaire Paris-Sud, 91898 Orsay, France
3J. Stefan Institute, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
4Dipartimento di Chimica, Universitá di Roma “La Sapienza” and INFM Unit, 00185 Rome, Italy
5Sincrotrone Trieste, 34012 Trieste, Italy
6INFM-TASC, 34012 Trieste, Italy
7Department of Physics, University of Western Australia, Nedlands WA6907, Australia
8Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, United Kingdom

Received 25 October 2000; published in the issue dated 26 March 2001

We have observed, for the first time, LS-forbidden triplet doubly excited states, in single photon excitation of ground state helium, below the second ionization threshold. These states are identified as 3Do and 3Po and their excitation is due to spin-orbit interaction that mixes them with the optically allowed 1Po states. This observation is possible due to the very high efficiency in detecting metastable atoms created after the fluorescence decay of the doubly excited states, and the new capabilities of third generation synchrotron vacuum ultraviolet sources with high resolution beam lines.

© 2001 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.86.2758
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.86.2758
PACS:
32.80.Dz, 32.50.+d, 32.80.Fb

*Electronic address: penent@ccr.jussieu.fr

 
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