Two-photon ionization of Cs₂, Rb₂and RbCs using an Ar-ion

Abstract

Absorption by Cs2, Rb2 and RbCs of radiation at the nine wavelengths of an Ar-ion laser leads to production of molecular and atomic ions via two-photon processes. The authors report absolute probabilities for these processes in Cs2 and Rb2 (and relative numbers for RbCs) and discuss the spectral behaviour in the light of spectroscopic information on the potential energy diagrams. For Cs2, values for the photoionization cross sections of the E state, the intermediate state in the two-step process, are derived.