STIMULATED PHOTON-ECHO STUDY OF NA(32S1/2)-CO VELOCITY-CHANGING COLLISIONS

Using the recently developed single-state stimulated photon echo technique, we have studied the velocity changes experienced by ground-state Na atoms in collisions with carbon monoxide molecules. We find that the ground-state Na atoms have a total cross section of ≈420 Å2 for velocity-changing collisions with CO, and that they experience an average velocity change of ≈600 cm/s. A scattering kernel of exponential form is shown to be consistent with our results. We discuss the essential features of the estimated photon echo technique. © 1979.