Excitation of the 42P3/2level of potassium in collisions with rare gas atoms. Polarization of the emitted radiation

Polarization measurements have been performed on the K(4 2 P 3/2 to 4 2 S 1/2 ) line emitted after collisions between K and He, Ne, Ar, Kr and Xe. In all cases polarization is found in the studied lab energy range from 50-1500 eV; at low energies the polarization fraction is strongly dependent on collision energy. It is shown that the shape of the polarization function depends mainly on the relative population of the molecular states A 2 Pi and B 2 Sigma correlating with K(4 2 P 3/2 )+rare gas ( 1 S 0 ).