Photoionization from the 2p subshell of the laser-excited aligned Na*2p(6)3p 2P_(3/2) state

High resolution angle-resolved photoelectron spectra from Na atoms laser excited and aligned in the Na 2p 6 3p 2 P3/2 state are investigated experimentally and theoretically in the region of the Na + 2p 5 3p manifold. A prominent influence of the alignment on the relative line intensities is observed. The measured linear alignment dichroism is in good agreement with the theoretical results obtained in the multiconfigurational Dirac-Fock approximation as well as in a generalized geometrical model, which is extended to the description of angular distributions of photoelectrons from polarized atoms.