Excitation and characterization of long-lived hydrogenic Rydberg states of nitric oxide
Abstract
High Rydberg states of nitric oxide (NO) with principal quantum numbers between 40 and 100 and lifetimes in excess of 10 μs have been prepared by resonance enhanced two-color two-photon laser excitation from the X 21/2 ground state through the A 2+ intermediate state. Molecules in these long-lived Rydberg states were detected and characterized 126 μs after laser photoexcitation by state-selective pulsed electric field ionization. The laser excitation and electric field ionization data were combined to construct two-dimensional spectral maps. These maps were used to identify the rotational states of the NO+ ion core to which the observed series of long-lived hydrogenic Rydberg states converge. The results presented pave the way for Rydberg-Stark deceleration and electrostatic trapping experiments with NO, which are expected to shed further light on the decay dynamics of these long-lived excited states, and are of interest for studies of ion-molecule reactions at low temperatures.