Theoretical study of radiative collisions

A semi-classical theory is developed which describes atomic scattering in the presence of an intense laser field. As a preliminary step in the development of this radiative theory, a field-free semi-classical theory is constructed which is complete and describes motional quantal interference phenomena. This theory is applied to radiative collisions for both single and three photon transitions and includes high-field effects such as non-rotating wave contributions. Radiative resonant scattering and collisions involving mutiple crossings are examined. Numerical examples are provided which demonstrate how the radiative S-matrix elements depend on experimentally controlled variables such as laser frequency, kinetic energy of the colliding system, and laser power