INVESTIGATION OF AN OSCILLATING FREQUENCY-DEPENDENCE OF THE SCATTERING PROBABILITY OF SODIUM ATOMS IN A STRONG-FIELD OF 2 COUNTERPROPAGATING LASER-PULSES

New experimental results on the scattering of sodium atoms in the fiel d of two counterpropagating laser pulses (an incident pulse and a puls e reflected from a mirror) are presented. The recently observed novel interference structure in the distribution of atoms scattered by a str ong field near the reflecting mirror is studied in detail. The scatter ing probability is shown to possess a large-scale oscillatory dependen ce on the detuning from the resonance. The period of oscillations is s hown to be virtually independent of various interaction parameters and considerably dependent on the position of the mirror. It is found in experiments that the characteristic frequency increases proportionally to the distance between the atomic beam and the mirror.