POPULATION TRANSFER BETWEEN THE FINE-STRUCTURE LEVELS 5S5P3P1 AND 5S5P3P0 OF CD-114 ATOMS BY COLLISIONS WITH MOLECULAR GASES

Fine-structure mixing of excited CD-114 5 3P(J) atoms induced by collisions with various molecular gases (N2, H-2, D2, CO, CH4, C2H6) has been investigated by a combined method of absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy. After pulsed optical excitation of the Cd(5 3P1) level, the time dependence of the population densities has been measured simultaneously both for the 5 3P1 state and for the collisionally populated 5 3P0 state. By analyzing the signal curves at different molecular gas pressures cross sections for collisional transfer between the Cd-114 5 3P1 and 5 3P0 levels as well as the quenching cross sections for the 5 3P levels have been obtained.