First measurements of polarization of 228.8 nm radiation emitted by cadmium atoms excited to the first singlet state (5 ^1P_1) following impact of electrons were carried out for the electron energy range 20-500 eV. New data were also obtained on the relative optical excitation function up to electron energy of 500 eV, which extend lower energy results published previously by other researchers.
We report on measurements of the relative optical-excitation function for the 4^{1}P state of Ca and polarization degree of the 4227-Å resonance line. The measurements were carried out using crossed low-density beams of electrons and calcium atoms, for incident electron energies from 8 to 500 eV. For each electron energy we have used 28 results obtained at different polarizer positions from 0-180 ̊ to extract the required parameters. Excellent agreement between the present results and earlier predictions has been found.
We present ultra-narrow line width, tunable diode laser system which will be used as a local oscillator in an optical atomic clock and for precision spectroscopy of Sr near 689 nm. Design of the high finesse optical cavity used as short-term frequency reference is optimized with respect to insensitivity to vibrations. We achieved laser line width of about 8 Hz, measured by comparison of two identical systems. The relative phase lock of two lasers is better than 150 mHz. Laser tunability and usefulness for precison spectroscopy were demonstrated through line shape measurement of a 20 kHz wide resonance of the optical cavity.