Observation of Collisional Transfer from Alignment to Orientation of Atoms Excited by a Single-Mode Laser

The first experimental evidence of transfer from alignment to orientation of laserexcited atoms due to anisotropic collisions is reported. The experiment has been made with respect to neon atoms in the $2p_4$ state, excited by a single-mode laser, which collide with the ground-state neon atoms, and good agreement between experiment and theory is found.