Stark Effect of the RubidiumD2 Line Studied by High-Resolution Laser Spectroscopy

The Stark effect of the 5 s 2 S 1/2 –5 p 2 P 3/2 transition ( D 2 line) of Rb has been studied by high-resolution atomic-beam laser spectroscopy. The splittings of magnetic sublevels of 5 p 2 P 3/2 have been resolved, and the Stark shifts and splittings of the D 2 line have been measured at various electric fields. The scalar polarizability of the D 2 line and the tensor polarizability of the 5 p 2 P 3/2 level have been determined to be α s (5 p 2 P 3/2 ) - α s (5 s 2 S 1/2 ) = 136.95(89) kHz/(kV/cm) 2 and α t (5 p 2 P 3/2 ) = -40.91(38) kHz/(kV/cm) 2 , respectively, by considering the mixing between hyperfine structure levels of 5 p 2 P 3/2 . The precision of α t (5 p 2 P 3/2 ) has been improved by a factor of 2 compared with the previously reported values.