the optically prepared 3 2P state

Abstract. An experimental investigation of electron-impact excitation of the 3 2D-state from the laser-excited 3 2P state of atomic sodium is reported for 30 eV incident electron energy. A detailed consideration of the measurement technique is presented, based on the density matrix description of electron-impact-induced atomic transitions for target atoms in which the spin of the target electron is unchanged. It is shown that some inference about excitation probabilities between individual magnetic substates of the P- to D-state transition can be made from measurements of the four pseudo-Stokes parameters. A description of the inelastic scattering experiment and an analysis of the experimental measurements in terms of both the standard atomic collision parameters and magnetic substate excitation probabilities are presented. Convergent close-coupling theoretical calculations are compared with the experimental results and show good agreement. 1