Experimental investigations of doubly excited states of the two-valence-electron atom Ba will be carried out. First, such states with highly correlated motions will be investigated, by observing correlations in energy levels, oscillator strengths, and decay mechanisms. Second, a high power picosecond laser will be used to excite doubly excited states to determine the extent to which excitation occurs in neutral Ba before it decays into an ion and an electron, and to observe the interplay between intermediate and final autoionizing resonances on the process.
