CONNECTION BETWEEN SUPERELASTIC AND INELASTIC ELECTRON-ATOM COLLISIONS INVOLVING POLARIZED COLLISION PARTNERS

It is shown how the results of a recent experiment by Jiang, Zuo, Vuskovic, and Bederson [Phys. Rev. Lett. 68, 915 (1992)], who investigated low-energy electron scattering from laser-excited polarized sodium atoms in the initial (3p P-2(3/2)-degrees (F = 3, M(F) = 3) state, can be related to the inelastic 3S --> 3P transition involving initially unpolarized electron and atom beams. Hence, this method can.provide an independent check of the traditional electron-scattering experiment with unpolarized beams.