Laser methods, energy-level diagrams

Figure 1 Principles of laser-based atomic spectroscopic methods using resonant laser excitation (A) scheme of different detection methods (B) energy level diagram and transitions for excitation, ionization, and radiative deexcitation processes.

Laser spectroscopy methods substantially widen the scope of research into very narrow autoionization states. This can be illustrated by the long-lived autoionization state of the Gd atom (Bekov et al. 1978). Its lifetime is about 0.5ns, and Fa.i. 0.05 cm. A simplified energy-level diagram of gadolinium is shown in Fig. 9.4(a). The dye laser with Ai = 5618A used in the first excitation step raises gadolinium atoms from... 

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