Physical Review Letters
Coherent Excitation of the 4F1 State of Helium by Electron Impact
D Cvejanović, Albert Crowe
Abstract
The Stokes parameters ${P}_{1}$, ${P}_{2}$, ${P}_{3}$, and ${P}_{4}$ have been measured in a scattered electron-polarized cascade photon correlation study of the $4^{1}F$ state of helium excited by 29.6 eV electron impact. This is the first detailed experimental study of electron impact excitation leading to the transfer of three units of angular momentum. The data are expected to be influenced by the breakdown of $\mathrm{LS}$ coupling for $L\ensuremath{\ge}3$ states, even in a simple system like helium, providing a further challenge for theory.