Electron Scattering by Sodium Atoms Excited by a Standing Wave Laser Field.

Viktor I Balykin, A. I. Sidorov

An experimental investigation was made of the behavior of the optical pressure force created by the interaction of a two-frequency laser field with a sodium atom in traveling and standing light waves. It was found that the optical pressure forces due to a traveling wave were quite different for a two-level atom and an atom of sodium. In a standing wave field the motion of atoms was governed mainly by pulsed diffusion.

Ingolf Volker Hertel

M. Ya. Agre, Л. П. Рапопорт

V. A. Grinchuk, I. A. Grishina, E. F. Kuzin +3 more

In this paper we present some new results concerning the observed anomalous frequency properties of the process of the neutral atom scattering in the standing light wave field near the reflecting mirror. The investigations were carried out using the method of scattering of the sodium atomic strip beam, intersecting at right angle the region of the standing light wave field. The standing light wave field was formed by two counterpropagating waves of resonant laser radiation -- incident and reflected from the mirror, mounted at a distance of about 1 cm from the atomic beam. The coherence length of the laser radiation was about 10 cm, that's why the interaction of atoms with the field of two counterpropagating light waves was coherent. The width of the strip atomic beam (a equals 0.02 cm) was much less than the distance to the mirror. The specific feature of the given setup is the use of pulsed laser radiation with the duration (tau) less than 1/(gamma) ((gamma) -1- the time of resonant level spontaneous decay), so the atoms are scattered only due to the induced light pressure force. In this paper the detailed investigation of the distance R influence on the scattering process was carried out. With this purpose the mirror was mounted at different distances from the atomic beam. (truncated)

Max Shurgalin

Coherent laser preparation of atoms has been employed in superelastic and inelastic electron scattering from the excited 32P3/2 state of sodium. This allows Atomic Collision Parameters to be deduced for the 3S to 3P and 3P to 4S transitions respectively. By employing micro-reversibility, a long standing proposal relating the sign of the transferred angular momentum to the sense of energy transfer has been tested, and is not supported in general by experiment.

A. Eichhorn, M. Elbel