Observation of Laser-Induced Penning and Associative Ionization in Li-Li Collisions

Abstract

We report the direct observation of $^{6}\mathrm{Li}^{+}$, $^{7}\mathrm{Li}^{+}$, $^{13}\mathrm{Li}_{2}^{+}$, $^{14}\mathrm{Li}_{2}^{+}$ arising from single collisions between beams of lithium atoms in the presence of a laser field. Although the relative intensity of atomic ions reflects the natural isotopic abundance, a pronounced enrichment of $^{13}\mathrm{Li}_{2}^{+}$ relative to $^{14}\mathrm{Li}_{2}^{+}$ is observed.