Temperature dependence of Rb(5$P)+$Rb(5$P)\to $Rb(6$P)+$Rb(5$S)$ energy pooling process

We describe recent progress on a cell-based experiment studying the temperature dependence of energy pooling collisions between excited rubidium atoms in a vapor. We create a thermal population of Rb(5$P_{J})$ atoms using a cw tunable diode laser tuned to the 5$S_{\mathrm{1/2}}\to $5$P_{\mathrm{1/2}}$ transition. Fine-structure changing collisions populate the 5$P_{\mathrm{3/2}}$ state while energy pooling collisions between 5$P$ atoms (of either the same or different $J $value) will populate higher energy levels. We measure the 6$P_{J\prime }\to $5$S_{\mathrm{1/2}}$ fluorescence at right angles to the laser beam and normalize this signal to a combination of the 5$P_{\mathrm{3/2}}\to $5$S_{\mathrm{1/2}}$ fluorescence and 5$P_{\mathrm{1/2}}\to $5$S_{\mathrm{1/2}}$ fluorescence (proportional to each of the 5$P_{J}$ densities, respectively). Varying the temperature of the oven containing the rubidium cell allows us to map the temperature dependence of the Rb(5$P_{J})+$Rb(5$P_{J})\to $Rb(6$P_{J\prime })+$Rb(5$S_{\mathrm{1/2}})$ energy pooling rate coefficient. Our preliminary results indicate a temperature dependence does exist, but further work is required to verify these results.