Orbital alignment effects in the Ca(4s5p 1P 1)to Ca(4s5p 3P j) electronic energy transfer with molecular collision partners

Abstract

The effects of orbital alignment on the Ca(4s5p 1P 1) to Ca(4s5p 3P j ) electronic energy transfer process are determined for molecular collision partners, H 2, D 2, N 2, O 2, CO, CO 2 CH 4, C 2H 6, and SF 6. Most of the molecules exhibit negligible effects, except for H 2 (D 2) and CO 2, which show significant preferences for perpendicular and parallel initial orbital alignments, respectively. In the reverse transfer direction, hydrogen exhibits an even larger effect favoring the perpendicular laser polarization.