Collisional redistribution of circularly polarized light in barium perturbed by argon

We have measured the orientation of the Ba 6p1P level produced by collision-induced excitation from the ground state by circularly polarized light. The detuning dependence of the far-wing excited state orientation can be interpreted in terms of reorientation of molecular orbitals which occur during the collision. Effects due to rotational coupling are seen to occure at large blue wing detunings. We have also determined the collisional rate for destruction of orientation by measuring the pressure dependence of the excited state orientation. (orig.)