On the 21Πg state of the rubidium dimer

Abstract

Double resonance experiments with one or two cw Ti:sapphire lasers have probed the 21Πg state of the rubidium dimer, whose potential minimum lies 22069.6cm−1 above the minimum of the electronic ground state. Resolved fluorescence to the B1Πu state has been analyzed. Many of the rovibrational levels probed in this work lie below those observed in earlier work by Han et al. (2012). Combining new measurements with those available in the literature, observations now cover about 90% of the total well depth of the 21Πg state, whose dissociation products are Rb 4d(2D3/2)+Rb 5s (2S) atoms. We describe the 21Πg state with a set of Dunham-type polynomials and with an analytical potential curve determined from a direct fit of all available data, assuming Born–Oppenheimer mass dependence to fit 85Rb2 and 85Rb87Rb data simultaneously.