Rydberg atoms in parallel magnetic and electric fields. III. Experimental investigations of the Stark structure of the diamagnetic manifold of lithium

Abstract

For pt. II see ibid., vol.21, no.21, p.3499-521 (1988). A high-resolution laser spectroscopy experiment performed on an atomic beam of lithium has allowed the authors to analyse systematically the photoexcitation spectra from the ground state in the presence of parallel electric and magnetic fields. For the strengths studied, the Stark and diamagnetic energies are small compared with the energy separation between states with different principal quantum numbers n. Complete n manifolds have been experimentally investigated and the structure of the energy spectrum has been investigated as a function of the intensity of one of the fields, the other one being kept constant. This experiment provides a confirmation for the existence of the three classes of states predicted from an analysis of the properties of the Hamiltonian of atomic hydrogen.