Abstract

The study of multiphoton processes in polarized atoms and molecules (states with different values of projection of the angular momentum are unequally populated) opens up, obviously, new possibilities for nonlinear laser spectroscopy. A polarized system becomes asymmetric, which results in a significant change in the differential cross section of a multiphoton process, and the total cross section begins to depend on a geometry of an experiment. For a definite type of polarization the atom (molecule) becomes optically active, which is manifested as circular dichroism in the total cross section of the process.

© 1994 IEEE