Population Transfer Between the Fine-Structure Levels 5 S 5 P 3 P 1 and 5 S 5 P 3 P 0 of 114 Cd Atoms by Collisions with Molecular Gases

Fine-structure mixing of excited114Cd 53P J atoms induced by collisions with various molecular gases (N2, H2, D2, CO, CH4, C2H6) has been investigated by a combined method of absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy. After pulsed optical excitation of the Cd(53P1) level, the time dependence of the population densities has been measured simultaneously both for the 53P1 state and for the collisionally populated 53P0 state. By analyzing the signal curves at different molecular gas pressures cross sections for collisional transfer between the114Cd 53P1 and 53P0 levels as well as the quenching cross sections for the 53P levels have been obtained.