Connection between Superelastic and Inelastic Electron-Atom Collisions Involving Polarized Collision Partners

It is shown how the results of a recent experiment by Jiang, Zuo, Vuković, and Bederson [Phys. Rev. Lett. 68, 915 (1992)], who investigated low-energy electron scattering from laser-excited polarized sodium atoms in the initial (3p) 2P°3/2 (F=3, MF=3) state, can be related to the inelastic 3S→3P transition involving initially unpolarized electron and atom beams. Hence, this method can provide an independent check of the traditional electron-scattering experiment with unpolarized beams