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Measurement of the 5D Level Polarizabilty in Laser Cooled Rb atoms

We report on accurate measurements of the scalar and tensor polarizabilities of the 5D fine structure levels 5D3/2 and 5D5/2 in Rb. The measured values show reasonable correspondence to previously published theoretical predictions, but are more accurate. We implemented laser excitation of the 5D level in a laser cooled cloud of optically polarized Rb-87 atoms placed in a constant electric field.