Investigation of various ways of forming CsH by irradiating a Cs+H2 mixture with laser light

A detailed study of the formation of CsH by the laser photoexcitation of cesium atoms is presented. It is shown that, under our experimental conditions, CsH can be formed not only from the Cs(7P) state but also from the Cs(6D) state and that the 6D level appears to be even more efficient than the 7P level. CsH formation has also been observed when rubidium impurities present in the medium are photoexcited. In this situation, excitation transfer from excited Rb atoms to Cs atoms is not sufficient to explain the observed rate of CsH formation; consequently most of the CsH appears to be formed in an indirect process requiring no excited Cs atom and perhaps involving vibrationally excited H2 molecules.