LASER-ASSISTED COLLISIONS - INVESTIGATION OF THE OPTICAL COLLISION PROCESS NA(3S)-] NA(3P)+KR IN A CROSSED-BEAM EXPERIMENT(KR+HV )

We measured the angular distribution of the excited Na atoms from the process Na(3s) + Kr + hv --> Na(3p) + Kr. The photon energy is detuned by 50 cm-1 from the Na resonance energy and the optical transition ca n occur only when the atoms are close to each other. The angular resol ution allows the observation only of the general structure of the cros s section, but not of finer details. We describe the experimental meth od and the experimental difficulties, especially the origin of a numbe r of competing signals. We discuss the process as a new way of observi ng the collision Na + Kr, using the photon as a probe.