Abstract

Using a multistep laser excitation of alkaline earth atoms in an atomic beam we are able to excite autoionizing states in which one of the electrons can be in a state of almost arbitrary n and 1. The multistep approach uses all single photon transitions in which one electron is excited at a time, as shown in Fig. 1. In addition to the technical simplification of requiring low energy photons, exciting one electron at a time simplifies the observed spectra and their interpretation.

© 1982 Optical Society of America