Phys. Rev. A 68, 032508 (2003) [7 pages]Optical pumping of metastable NH radicals into the paramagnetic ground stateReceived 19 May 2003; published 15 September 2003 We here report on the optical pumping of both 14NH and 15NH radicals from the metastable a1Δ state into the X3Σ- ground state in a molecular beam experiment. By inducing the hitherto unobserved spin-forbidden A3Π←a1Δ transition, followed by spontaneous emission to the X3Σ- state, a unidirectional pathway for population transfer from the metastable state into the electronic ground state is obtained. The optical pumping scheme demonstrated here opens up the possibility to accumulate NH radicals in a magnetic or optical trap. © 2003 The American Physical Society URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevA.68.032508
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevA.68.032508
PACS:
33.70.Ca, 33.80.Ps, 33.70.Fd, 33.20.Kf
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