Near-100% production of the excited Be⁺ 1s²2p ion from decay of Be 1s2s²2p

Authors

• C. Denise Caldwell, University of Central Florida - Orlando
• Mark G. Flemming, University of Central Florida - Orlando
• Manfred O. Krause, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee
• Peter van der Meulen, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee
• Cheng Pan, University of Nebraska - Lincoln
• Anthony F. Starace, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

1-1-1990

Comments

Published by American Physical Society. Phys. Rev. A 41, 542 (1990). http://pra.aps.org. Copyright © 1990 American Physical Society. Permission to use.

Abstract

In examining the decay of photon-produced Be 1s2s²np(¹P), n=2,3, we discovered that the vastly predominant decay mode is to the final excited ionic states Be⁺ 1s²np, rather than the ground state. For n=2, the 2p ion accounts for 95% of the total production, with Be⁺ 1s²3p the other main contributor. For n=3, 3p is predominant, again with a very small fraction of 2s. The result for n=2 occurs as a consequence of the similarity between the 2s and 2p radial wave functions of the excited state, which leads to a cancellation in the amplitude for transition to the 2s ground state.