Observation of Collisional Velocity Changes Associated with Atoms in a Superposition of Dissimilar Electronic States

14 January 1980

journal article
research article
Published by American Physical Society (APS) in Physical Review Letters

Vol. 44 (2) , 73-77
https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.44.73

Abstract

Photon-echo measurements in atomic Na perturbed by He provide the first demonstration of the contribution of velocity-changing-like effects to the transverse relaxation of atoms in superposition of two states even when the states follow different post-collision trajectories. The apparent anomaly that broadening cross sections derived from either absorption line widths or photon-echo relaxation measurements are smaller than the total cross section for scattering of atoms in either pure state is explained.

Keywords

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