Rayleigh and Raman Scattering from Alkali Atoms

Two computational methods developed recently [McNamara, Fursa, and Bray, Phys. Rev. A 98, 043435 (2018)] for calculating Rayleigh and Raman scattering cross sections for atomic hydrogen have been extended to quasi one-electron systems. A comprehensive set of cross sections have been obtained for the alkali atoms: lithium, sodium, potassium, rubidium, and cesium. These cross sections are accurate for incident photon energies above and below the ionization threshold, but they are limited to energies below the excitation threshold of core electrons. The effect of spin-orbit interaction, importance of accounting for core polarization, and convergence of the cross sections have been investigated.