On the Theory of the Smekal-Raman Effect in Hydrogen-Like Atoms

It has been shown by Schrödinger and O. Klein that the Kramers-Heisenberg formulas for dispersion and incoherent scattering can both be obtained by an extension of Schrödinger's method for treating dispersion, the terms in the Hamiltonian involving squares of the potentials being neglected. The resulting formulas agree with those of Dirac. They are, however, inconvenient for calculations, as they contain summations with respect to all energy levels combining with the pair of levels under consideration, and thus imply complicated integrations when a continuous spectrum is present. This paper treats the problem of a hydrogen-like atom, acted on by light the wave-length of which is large compared to the size of the atom and the frequency of which is not too near a resonance frequency, and develops a method which obviates the necessity of integrating over the continuous range. It is an extension of the method used by one of us in treating the dispersion by atomic hydrogen. It is applied in detail to the first two levels of H. Formulas are derived for the intensities of the Smekal-Raman lines with a shift corresponding to the first absorption line.