Galvanic manifestation of coherent degenerate Zeeman sublevels in a gas discharge

Abstract

The degenerate Zeeman sublevels were found to contribute to the ionization in a gas discharge in accordance with their coherent state. The voltage across the discharge was monitored while the same ensemble of excited atoms was alternately self-aligned ↔ nonaligned or oriented ↔ aligned. In the latter case, the coherence was optically induced; the corresponding opto-galvanic signals, i.e. amplitude- and time-resolved ones, were compared. Each state of the ensemble of degenerate Zeeman sublevels, i.e. (self-) aligned, oriented or disordered was characterized by its own rate of ionization. Various hollow cathode discharge (HCD) media were studied, namely, Ne/As, Ne/Cu, Ne/Ni, Ne/Cd, Ne/Li and Ne/Si in the corresponding commercial HCD spectral lamps.