TY - JOUR
T1 - Extension of a basic experiment
T2 - The polarisation of the white-light-excited spectrally resolved Na D lines and its relation to electron impact excitation
AU - Stumpf, B.
AU - Becker, K.
AU - Schulz, G.
PY - 1980
Y1 - 1980
N2 - The polarisation of spectrally resolved Na D lines excited by white, linearly polarised light in a homogeneous magnetic field up to 1000 G was measured by means of the crossed-beam technique. The axis of observation, the sodium beam and the direction of the magnetic field were mutually at right angles. The incoming light beam was directed along the magnetic field and linearly polarised either parallel to the axis of observation or perpendicular to it. A Lyot filter of high transmission and a sensitive photon-counting technique made it possible to detect the small intensities of the resolved Na D doublet excited by the light of a xenon arc lamp. The measured polarisations are found to be in excellent agreement with those calculated by means of Breit's theory and the ambiguities of earlier investigations are completely removed. The importance of our results for electron impact excitation in magnetic fields parallel to the beam is discussed. It is shown that the polarisation of the electron impact excited Na D lines is no longer perturbed by hyperfine structure if a magnetic field of 500 G parallel to the beam is applied.
AB - The polarisation of spectrally resolved Na D lines excited by white, linearly polarised light in a homogeneous magnetic field up to 1000 G was measured by means of the crossed-beam technique. The axis of observation, the sodium beam and the direction of the magnetic field were mutually at right angles. The incoming light beam was directed along the magnetic field and linearly polarised either parallel to the axis of observation or perpendicular to it. A Lyot filter of high transmission and a sensitive photon-counting technique made it possible to detect the small intensities of the resolved Na D doublet excited by the light of a xenon arc lamp. The measured polarisations are found to be in excellent agreement with those calculated by means of Breit's theory and the ambiguities of earlier investigations are completely removed. The importance of our results for electron impact excitation in magnetic fields parallel to the beam is discussed. It is shown that the polarisation of the electron impact excited Na D lines is no longer perturbed by hyperfine structure if a magnetic field of 500 G parallel to the beam is applied.
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U2 - 10.1088/0022-3700/13/21/001
DO - 10.1088/0022-3700/13/21/001
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:36149049354
SN - 0022-3700
VL - 13
SP - L627-L630
JO - Journal of Physics B: Atomic and Molecular Physics
JF - Journal of Physics B: Atomic and Molecular Physics
IS - 21
M1 - 001
ER -