Depolarization in 2 P 1/2 State of Excited Alkali Atoms Induced by Collisions with Noble Gas Atoms

F. Schuller, Gerard Nienhuis, Wolfgang Behmenburg

A. I. Okunevich, V. I. Perel

B. Niewitecka, L. Krause

F. Schüller, Gerard Nienhuis, Wolfgang Behmenburg

The polarization properties of excited alkali atoms having suffered half collisions with noble gas atoms following excitation by nonresonant photon absorption during a strong collision, are investigated. On the basis of a semiclassical perturbation treatment of the density matrix up to second order in the driving field a general expression for the polarization dependent intensity of the emitted alkali fluorescence is derived. Assuming quasistatic excitation of the collision complex and considering reorientation of the orbital and spin electronic angular momenta within a cut off radius, explicit results for the polarization degrees are presented and discussed, depending on the initial molecular excited state and coupling case.

I. N. Siara, H. S. Kwong, L. Krause

The cross sections for 72P1/2–72P3/2 excitation transfer in cesium, induced in collisions with noble gas atoms, have been determined in a series of sensitized fluorescence experiments at temperatures ranging from 405 to 630 K. The cross sections which lie in the range 0.06–20 Å2, exhibit a temperature dependence which, however, is less pronounced than in the more adiabatic case of the cesium resonance doublet.

P. Skalinski, L. Krause