The transfer of excitation from excited mercury atoms to ground-state thallium atoms was investigated using techniques of sensitized fluorescence. A Hg–Tl vapor mixture contained in a quartz cell was irradiated with Hg 2537 Å resonance radiation which caused the mercury atoms to become excited to the 63P1, state. Subsequent collisions between the Hg(63P1) and Tl(62P1/2) atoms resulted in the population of the 82S1/2, 62D, and 72S1/2 thallium states, whose decay gave rise to sensitized fluorescence of wavelengths 3231, 3520, 3776, and 5352 Å. Intensity measurements on the sensitized fluorescence and on the Hg 2537 Å resonance fluorescence, observed at right angles to the direction of excitation, yielded cross sections of 3.0, 0.3, and 0.05 Å2 for collisional excitation transfer from Hg(63P1) to the 82S1/2, 62D, and 72S1/2 states in thallium, respectively. The results are fully consistent with previously determined cross sections for excitation transfer in other binary metallic vapor systems.
