Abstract
We observe the production of Na2+ and Na+ arising from single collisions between crossed beams of sodium atoms when a laser field is tuned near the Na(3p 2P3/2) and Na(3p 2P1/2) transitions. Measurements of ion intensity vs laser intensity show that at moderately high power true laser‐induced processes dominate over purely collisional effects. Relative intensity of mass‐selected ions produced at either member of the Na resonance doublet shows conclusively that Na+ does not arise simply from photodissociation of Na2+ but must result from a direct, laser‐induced collisional ionization.