Influence of an applied electric field on state changing in xenon-Rydberg-atom—xenon collisions

Abstract

The influence of an applied electric field on state changing in collisions between laser-excited $\mathrm{Xe}\mathrm{}\left(\mathrm{nf}\right)\mathrm{}$ atoms and xenon target gas is described. The presence of the field results in marked changes in both the rate constant for collisional state changing and the final-state distribution. The changes can be generally understood in terms of energy-transfer arguments based on the "essentially-free" electron model, although the degree of spatial overlap between the wave functions associated with the initial and final states may also be important.