Trachy, M. L.Veshapidze, G.Shah, M. H.Jang, H. U.DePaola, B. D.2023-12-072023-12-072007-07-25https://hdl.handle.net/2097/43718We explore 2-color photoassociative ionization in cold Rb vapor and present experimental evidence that the molecular ions are produced from the stepwise excitation of a ladder of molecular states. We also explore a new process, dubbed photoassociative-dissociative ionization, by which atomic ions are created by excitation through a ladder of molecular states, finally autoionizing to a dissociative potential curve of Rb+2. We submit that these experiments could be the starting point for the same sort of high resolution spectroscopy that has already been done for lower electronic states of cold Rb2 at large internuclear separation.© American Physical Society (APS). This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/https://web.archive.org/web/20181120135245/https://journals.aps.org/copyrightFAQ.htmlText