Studies of xenon atoms in high Rydberg states

Abstract

Thermal beams of xenon atoms in single high Rydberg states have been produced by photoexcitation of $\mathrm{Xe}(^{3}P_{0})$ metastable atoms. The highly excited states which were populated in this way were identified as $\mathrm{np}{[\frac{1}{2}]}_{1}$ with $11\ensuremath{\le}n\ensuremath{\le}16$ and $\mathrm{nf}{[\frac{3}{2}]}_{1}$ with $8\ensuremath{\le}n\ensuremath{\le}40$. The field ionization characteristics and radiative lifetimes of these atoms have been studied.