Excitation of spin-polarized sodium and potassium atoms by electron impact

A beam of unpolarized electrons is crossed at right angles with a beam of partially polarized sodium or potassium atoms (degree of polarization PA approximately=21%) and resonance lines from the excited 2P3/2, 1/2 states are observed in a direction perpendicular to both the atom and electron beams for electron energies from threshold to 200 eV. The polarization of the emitted photons is measured in the form of the Stokes parameters P1, P2 and P3. The present measurements for sodium atoms are in better agreement with the theoretical values than the previously published experimental results. No other experimental or theoretical results are available for potassium atoms.