Theory of Resonance Ionization Spectroscopy

Abstract

Resonance Ionization Spectroscopy (RIS) can be defined as a state selective detection process in which pulsed tunable lasers are used to promote transitions from the selected state of the atoms or molecules in question to higher states, one of which will be ionized by the absorption of another photon. At least one resonance step is used in the stepwise ionization process, and it has been shown[1–4] that the ionization probability of the spectroscopically selected species can nearly always be made close to unity. Since measurements of the number of photoelectrons or ions can be made very precisely and even one electron (or under vacuum conditions, one ion) can be detected, the technique can be used to make quantitative measurements of very small populations of the state-selected species. Counting of individual atoms has special meaning for detection of rare events.

Research sponsored by the Office of Health and Environmental Research, U.S. Department of Energy under contract W-7405-eng-26 with the Union Carbide Corporation.