van der Waals - Zeeman transitions of metastable neon atoms passing through a micro-slit copper grating
J.‐C. Karam, Jules Grucker, M. Boustimi +6 more
Surface-induced transitions between Zeeman sub-levels of metastable neon atoms traversing a micro-slit copper grating are investigated. The quadrupolar part of the surface van der Waals interaction suddenly perturbs the evolution of the Zeeman sub-levels in a magnetic field B , giving rise to van der Waals - Zeeman transitions. Exothermal inelastic transitions are identified by the related deflection γ. In a diagram (γ, B 1/2 ) the location of the inelastic peaks is fitted by straight lines of slopes proportional to |Δ m | −1/2 , where Δ m is the magnetic number change.
Europhysics Letters (EPL)•Mar 7, 2006•15 citations