Hyperfine Structure and the Depolarization of Resonance Radiation by a Magnetic Field

The depolarization of Sodium D line resonance radiation resulting from the Larmor precession of the excited atoms has been carefully determined by a photographic method. Results are compared with a former visual determination (Jour. Opt. Soc. 10, 427, 1925). The effect of hyperfine structure and especially of the degeneracy due to the finite breadth of adjacent hyperfine levels is discussed following Breit, Rev. Mod. Phys. 5: 91, 1933, especially Section 4, p. 117 ff