Is photon angular momentum important in molecular collision processes occurring in a laser field?
Abstract
The importance of the rigorous treatment of photon angular momentum in molecular-collision processes occurring in the presence of intense radiation is investigated. An alternate approximate treatment, which essentially neglects the angular momentum coupling between the photon and the molecular degrees of freedom by averaging over the angular dependence of the interaction matrix elements, is presented and applied to a model calculation. The degeneracy-averaged results of this calculation compare remarkably well with the results of a rigorous calculation, from which we conclude (with reservation) that the explicit consideration of photon angular momentum coupling in molecular-collision problems is unnecessary.
- Publication:
-
Physical Review A
- Pub Date:
- October 1978
- DOI:
- 10.1103/PhysRevA.18.1751
- Bibcode:
- 1978PhRvA..18.1751D
- Keywords:
-
- Angular Momentum;
- Electromagnetic Interactions;
- Laser Outputs;
- Molecular Collisions;
- Photon Beams;
- Degrees Of Freedom;
- Electromagnetic Fields;
- Linear Polarization;
- Mathematical Models;
- Optical Coupling;
- Optical Polarization;
- Run Time (Computers);
- Atomic and Molecular Physics