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Journal of Physics B Atomic and Molecular Physics

Electron-photon coincidences with polarised electrons

Klaus Bartschat, Karl Blum, G F Hanne, Joachim Keßler

Published Oct 14, 1981• 110 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The authors present a theory of electron-photon coincidence experiments with polarised electrons, taking spin-orbit coupling effects during the excitation into account. The influence of the initial polarisation vector on the angular distribution and polarisation of the emitted photons is discussed in detail. As an explicit example the excitation process 1 S 0 to 3 P 1 in mercury is considered. Finally, the results are specialised to experiments where the scattered electrons are not observed. Using symmetry arguments and deriving additional selection rules they relate the degree of light polarisation to the initial polarisation. Two experimental results are presented.

DOI
10.1088/0022-3700/14/19/023

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Journal of Physics B Atomic and Molecular Physics•Aug 14, 1981•20 citations
The authors present a theory of electron-photon coincidence experiments with polarised electrons, taking spin-orbit coupling effects during the excitation into account. The influence of the initial polarisation vector on the angular distribution and polarisation of the emitted photons is discussed in detail. As an explicit example the excitation process 1 S 0 to 3 P 1 in mercury is considered. Finally, the results are specialised to experiments where the scattered electrons are not observed. Using symmetry arguments and deriving additional selection rules they relate the degree of light polarisation to the initial polarisation. Two experimental results are presented.
The authors present circular-polarisation measurements of 3 1 P to 2 1 S photons (501.6 nm) detected in delayed coincidence with electrons inelastically scattered upon excitation of the 3 1 P state of helium. They performed these experiments as a function of the electron scattering angle at incident electron energies of 80, 60 and 50 eV in order to study the orbital angular momentum transfer during the collision. The experimental results are compared with previous angular correlation data and with theory. For each incident electron energy they found a sign reversal of the angular momentum transfer as a function of the electron scattering angle.
Abstract In a number of recent papers descriptions have been given of how the light from atoms excited by a directed stream of electrons is polarised, in the absence of any external field of force. In particular we may refer to the paper by one of the present writers (Paper I), where some of the characteristics of the effect in mercury were discussed. It was found that the different lines of the spectrum were differently polarised, both in magnitude and direction. The behaviour of the polarisation when a magnetic field is applied to the mercury atoms was found to be identical with the effect produced by a similar field on the polarisa­tion when the light is excited by the absorption of plane polarised light, the electric vector of which is parallel to the direction of the stream of electrons. In this way, the polarisation of the light excited by electron impact was shown to be closely related to the polarisation of resonance radiation, which had been investigated by Wood and Ellett and others. In the paper referred to, the measurement of the polarisation of the spectral lines was, except in an individual instance, only qualitative. Since its appearance two papers have appeared in which polarisation measurements of the mercury lines excited by electron impact have appeared. Eldridge and Olsen gave qualitative results, and these confirmed those which we had given. Quarder gives quantitative measure­ments which are also for the most part in general accord. The aim of the present paper is to describe quantitative results, and, as will be seen, these are not in all cases in detailed agreement with those given by Quarder. The second aim is to determine the variation of the polarisation with the velocity of the electron stream, a point which has not been previously attempted. In Paper I it was shown that the magnitude of the polarisation is intimately connected with the dynamics of the collision process. By the electron impact, the atom is raised from its normal state into an upper quantum state, and by its return into the normal state, or into another state, light is emitted. The magnitude of the polarisation depends on both of these processes, but the second process, the actual emission of the light, is well understood. Polarisation measurements therefore give a powerful means of investigating the collision of an electron with an atom in the case when excitation of the atom takes place, and it is in this that their main interest lies.
The results of electron-photon coincidence experiments have given a new insight into the excitation of atoms by electron impact. This article reviews the way in which this new experimental technique has provided an exacting and fundamental test for the theory of the excitation process. The basic experimental method is first described, and a comprehensive treatment of excitation of the n 1 P states of helium is given. The extension of the technique to the study of excitation of the n=2 states of atomic hydrogen is then presented. Coincidence measurements also provide information on the role of spin in the collision, and this subject is treated in detail for excitation of heavy atoms by both unpolarised and spin-polarised beams of electrons. Finally, the electron-photon coincidence method permits observation of the time evolution of excited atomic states, and this review describes the attempts made to observe quantum beats in the radiative decay.
The polarisation of 2154 nm photons emitted from Hg atoms which are excited by electrons scattered in the forward direction has been measured for collision energies between 5.5 and 15 eV. From the results the relative contribution of exchange excitation could be determined. Exchange is found to be the dominant excitation mechanism from threshold up to 8 eV collision energy. The results are also expressed by the alignment parameter lambda and good agreement is found with a previous measurement using incident polarised electrons. The results are explained in terms of intermediate coupling.