Abstract
Mercury atoms are excited in a weak gas discharge to the metastable 63P2 state, forming a longitudinal alignment, which is observed in the absorption of the linearly polarised green Hg line ( lambda =5461 AA). By a pulsed RF field, transverse components of the alignment are produced additionally, giving rise to modulated absorption. During the free precession the signals decay due to depolarising collisions with mercury atoms in the ground state. The cross sections for the destruction of the alignment have been determined to be sigma 0=(262.9+or-5.2) AA2 for the longitudinal component, sigma 1=(257.8+or-7.5) AA2 for the first transverse component (modulated with the Larmor frequency) and sigma 2=(273.1+or-9.0) AA2 for the second transverse component (modulated with twice the Larmor frequency). It is emphasised that these values refer to the alignment.
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