Two-step laser spectroscopy of the even-parity Rydberg levels of neutral tin

Abstract

We report the first measurements of the even-parity J = 1 and 2 levels of neutral tin using a two-step laser excitation technique in conjunction with an atomic beam apparatus. The Rydberg series 5pnp (1/2,3/2)2 (11leq nleq45) and 5pnp (1/2,3/2)1 (12leq nleq18) have been observed converging to the first ionization limit. In addition, five p-levels; 5p8p (3/2,1/2)1,2, 5p8p (3/2,3/2)0,1,2 and three f-levels 5p5f (3/2,5/2)1,2 and 5p5f (3/2,7/2)2 converging to the second ionization threshold have been identified. The perturbations among the J = 2 levels have been studied using three-channel quantum defect theory.