Molecular Beam Resonances in Oscillatory Fields of Nonuniform Amplitudes and Phases

Molecular beam resonances are discussed for molecules subjected to various combinations of nonuniform fixed and oscillatory fields. The transition probability equations are reduced to forms which are suitable for digital computer calculations. A UNIVAC computer program for the calculation of the shapes of the resonances has been developed which is applicable to systems involving simultaneous transitions between two or three different energy levels and to cases where the magnitudes of the fixed fields, the amplitudes of the oscillatory fields, and the phases of the oscillatory fields vary arbitrarily throughout the transition region. The calculation is applicable to systems perturbed at as many as nine different frequencies simultaneously and to arbitrarily determined molecular velocity distributions. Curves are shown for molecular beam resonances with two, three, and four separated oscillatory fields and for resonances with a gradually applied single oscillatory field. The effects of phase variation along the beam in distorting a separated oscillatory field resonance are discussed.