2003/12/11 by F. Stienkemeier, Oliver Bünermann, O. Bunermann +6 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic and Subatomic Physics Research #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Quantum, superfluid, helium dynamics #cond-mat
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.70.214509
4 pages, 5 figures
arxiv created 2003/12/11 · openalex publication_date 2004/12/06 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We have experimentally studied the electronic 3p\ensuremath←3s excitation of Na atoms attached to 3He droplets by means of laser-induced fluorescence as well as beam depletion spectroscopy. From the similarities of the spectra (width∕shift of absorption lines) with these of Na on 4He droplets, we conclude that sodium atoms reside in a ``dimple'' on the droplet surface, and that superfluid-related effects are negligible. The experimental results are supported by density functional calculations at zero temperature, which confirm the surface location of sodium on 3He droplets, and provide a detailed description of the dimple structure. The calculated shift of the excitation spectra for the two isotopes is in good agreement with the experimental data.