Alignment of electronic angular momentum by stimulated Raman scattering with delayed pulses

The recently developed STIRAP-technique is applied to efficient population transfer and alignment of metastable Ne* atoms. Alignment parameters in the range -0.3≥A02≥1.0 are observed. The degree of alignment can be controlled by changing the angle between the field vectors of the linearly polarized pump- and Stokes-lasers. The transfer efficiency depends also on this angle. The results of numerical calculations agree satisfactorily with the experimental data. (orig.)