Quasielastic state-changing collisions of high-Rydberg atoms with rare-gas atoms. II. Collisions with heavier rare-gas atoms.

Abstract

We have extensively investigated quasielastic state-changing collisions (QESCC) of high-Rydberg atoms with rare-gas atoms including Kr and Xe based on the free-electron model. Theoretical results are compared with recent experimental findings for 25\ensuremath{\lesssim}n\ensuremath{\lesssim}48. It has been found that they explain almost all existing experimental data on the QESCC for high n available at present consistently and in a unified way. More detailed analyses concerning the higher-order term of the free-electron model show that there is still some discrepancy among the existing experimental data on the QESCC.