Far-wing collisional redistribution of light in the barium-rare gas systems

We have measured intensity and polarization of far-wing collisionally redistributed light from Ba perturbed by He, Ne, and Kr in a heated cell (T similar to 800 K). Collisional alignment decay rates were also determined. The light was detuned +/-3 - 900 cm(-1) from the 5535 Angstrom BaI6(1)S - 6(1)P resonance line. The rare gas pressure was about 5 mbar. Together with the earlier data of Alford et al. [24], the results form a complete set of data for comparison with forthcoming predictions based on state-of-the-art theory for potential curves of Ba-rare gas systems. With emphasis on systematical trends, the results are discussed in terms of earlier theoretical and experimental findings for similar two-electron systems.