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Atomic collisions from basic research to new technologies

10/28/2008

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Burcin Bayram

Burcin Bayram, assistant professor of physics at Miami University, is author of a recently published study of the first experimental observation of collisions between atoms of the alkali-metal cesium and argon gas using a novel nanosecond pump-probe laser technique.

The new technique offers significant insights into the atomic collisional dynamics and energy transfers important to astrophysics, the atmospheric sciences, plasma processing of semiconductor devices, combustion diagnostics, and radiation therapy, says Bayram.

In their study, Bayram and co-author Ramesh Marhatta (Miami '07) used a circularly polarized laser to create an anisotropy in the angular momentum of cesium atoms-that is, the momentum varied along specific directions. A second circularly polarized laser further excited these atoms and sensed the anisotropy. They collected the light emitted by the atoms as they decayed back to a lower energy state. This procedure was repeated, introducing argon gas at differing pressures.

"In this way, destruction of the anisotropy could be studied by slowly injecting these gas perturbers into the system. Our work demonstrated how a pump-probe pulse laser technique can be used to study such processes, providing a deeper understanding of the collisional dynamics of excited alkali atoms," said Bayram. "To our knowledge, there are no experimental observations (of this) using such a technique."

Bayram's research, "Anisotropy-dependent Circular Polarization Spectroscopy" appears in Physical Review A, Vol 78. Her work was supported by a grant from the Research Corporation, Cottrell College Science Award. She joined the Miami physics faculty in 2002.