Eur. Phys. J. Plus (2013) 128: 151
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/i2013-13151-8

Regular Article

Linewidth oscillations in the 5d_3/2nd autoionizing series of barium

Department of Physics, Kuwait University, P.O. Box 5969, 13060, Safat, Kuwait

^* e-mail: kafrousheh@gmail.com

Received: 23 October 2013
Accepted: 19 November 2013
Published online: 9 December 2013

Abstract

The first autoionization region of barium was studied using a single-color two-photon excitation scheme. The resonance energies and linewidths of barium 5d_3/2nd ¹D_{0, 2} series members were obtained by fitting each spectral line with a Beutler-Fano profile function. The quantum defects of the series were calculated using the obtained resonance energies. The behavior of the linewidth and quantum defect of the series members for n = 8 to 30 was then studied to find out about different interactions involving this autoionizing series such as inter-series coupling. Atomic Ba vapor was produced in a hot-pipe oven, and a tunable dye laser pumped by an excimer laser was used to excite autoionizing Rydberg states. We observed spectral linewidth oscillations in the range of the main quantum numbers 8 to 24, and explained this phenomenon based on interconfiguration interaction among autoionizing series of Ba .