Sensitized Fluorescence in Cadmium Induced in Collisions with Excited Hg Atoms
The transfer of excitation energy induced in inelastic collisions between excited Hg atoms and ground-state Cd atoms was studied using methods of sensitized fluorescence. Hg atoms in a low-density Hg–Cd vapor mixture were excited with Hg 2537 Å resonance radiation to the 63P1 state and interacted with the Cd atoms which became collisionally excited to the 53P1 state and subsequently decayed emitting sensitized fluorescence. Measurements of relative intensities of Hg 2537 Å resonance fluorescence and Cd 3261 Å sensitized fluorescence yielded the cross section Q(63P1 → 53P1) = 4.6 × 10−2 Å2. The efficiency of the excitation transfer was enhanced by the addition of small quantities of N2 to the Hg–Cd system. The cross section for quenching of the Cd 53P1 state by collisions with N2 was found to be 1.7 Å2.