Spectroscopic determination of final products of autoionization

Abstract

A detailed analysis of the excitation spectrum of the $\mathrm{Ba} (6{P}_{\frac{3}{2}}12s,J=1)$ autoionizing state is presented. From this it is deduced that the dominant decay channel for autoionization of the $\mathrm{Ba} (6{P}_{\frac{3}{2}}ns,J=1)$ states ($n\ensuremath{\ge}12$) is to the ${\mathrm{Ba}}^{+} (6{P}_{\frac{1}{2}})+{e}^{\ensuremath{-}}\ensuremath{\epsilon}d$ configuration. Quadrupole coupling is presumed to be the important interaction, and an estimate of the resulting autoionization rate is presented.