a Theoretical Study of Radiative Collisions.

A semiclassical theory is developed which describes atomic scattering in the presence of an intense laser field. As a preliminary step in the development of this radiative theory, a field-free semiclassical theory is constructed which is complete and describes motional quantal interference phenomena. This theory is applied to radiative collisions for both single and three photon transitions and includes high-field effects such as nonrotating wave contributions. Radiative resonant scattering and collisions involving multiple crossings are examined. Numerical examples are provided which demonstrate how the radiative S-matrix elements depend on experimentally controlled variables such as laser frequency, kinetic energy of the colliding system, and laser power.