Experimental determination of the rate constant for spin exchange in collisions of polarized metastable helium atoms with ground-state cesium atoms

The rate constant for spin exchange in a system consisting of a metastable helium atom and an alkali-metal atom is determined. An experiment on optical orientation of atoms established that the rate constant for spin exchange in a collision of a metastable 2³ S ₁ helium atom with a cesium atom in the 6² S _1/2 ground state equals (2.8±0.8)×10⁻⁹ cm³ s⁻¹. The rate constant for chemoionization of cesium atoms by metastable helium atoms was determined at the same time to be (1.0±0.3)×10⁹ cm³s⁻¹. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 66, No. 3, 145–148 (10 August 1997)