Abstract

The study of the very complicated atom-surface interaction in presence of light had an increasing momentum during these last few years. A new field has been opened by a recent experiment made by Gozzini et al.,¹ where a new and interesting effect, consisting in a huge sodium desorption when a silane coated cell is illuminated at room temperature, has been observed. Similar results, still in silane coated cells, have also been obtained by Meucci et al.² with rubidium and cesium. The effect, shortly indicated hereafter as LIAD (light-induced atom desorption), is totally different from the other processes produced by very intense laser pulses, where the main effect produced by light is a thermal one.

© 1994 IEEE