The effect of a nonresonant radiative field on low-energy rotationally inelastic Na+ + N2 collisions

We examine the effects of a linearly polarized nonresonant radiative field on the dynamics of rotationally inelastic Na+ + N2 collisions at eV collision energies. Our treatment is based on the Fraunhofer model of matter wave scattering and its recent extension to collisions in electric fields [M. Lemeshko, B. Friedrich, J. Chem. Phys. 129 (2008) 024301]. The nonresonant radiative field changes the effective shape of the target molecule by aligning it in the space-fixed frame. This markedly alters the differential and integral scattering cross-sections. As the cross-sections can be evaluated for a polarization of the radiative field collinear or perpendicular to the relative velocity vector, the model also offers predictions about steric asymmetry of the collisions.