Shapes and Orientation of Atoms in Energy and Charge Transfer Collisions with Laser Excitation: Recent Developments

Abstract

In this contribution we wish to illustrate the insights into the underlying mechanisms of elementary molecular dynamical processes that can be obtained from alignment and orientation studies with laser excited atoms. We will do this with reference to two examples: 1) Resonant charge exchange in Na* + Na+ collisions and 2) Studies of energy transfer in Ca* — rare gas collisions. For a rather more comprehensive treatment of the subject the reader is referred to a recent review1. We will start however, with a few general comments on the nature of such experiments involving laser excited atoms.KeywordsImpact ParameterDifferential Cross SectionAtomic OrbitalMolecular StateReflection SymmetryThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.