MANY-ELECTRON ATOMS IN HIGH MAGNETIC-FIELDS

We present a report on experiments performed at Imperial College on diamagnetic effects in many-electron atoms. These include both atomic-beam experiments with DC fields, for which the measurement technique involves detecting Rydberg atoms after laser excitation, and experiments on columns of atomic vapour, in which case we have studied Faraday rotation induced by a pulsed magnetic field. In the atomic-beam experiments, interesting differences between the sigma+ and sigma- spectra have been observed. We also describe theoretical work related to the interpretation of the data for both sets of experiments.