LASER-STIMULATED RECOMBINATION SPECTROSCOPY FOR THE STUDY OF LONG-RANGE INTERACTIONS IN HIGHLY-CHARGED RYDBERG IONS

The energy shifts of high-angular-momentum Rydberg states in beryllium like O4+, due to long-range interactions of the Rydberg electron with the ionic core, are measured by laser spectroscopy, using stimulated t wo-step recombination of free electrons with O5+ ions. The comparison of the accurate experimental results with theoretical shifts from the core polarization model and from ab initio atomic structure calculatio ns shows considerable disagreement, demonstrating the need for an effi cient method to include configuration interaction in a long-range inte raction model.