Optical orientation of atoms in spontaneous Raman scattering of elliptically polarized light

A general approach to the problem of spontaneous transfer of light-induced anisotropy in the scheme of Raman scattering of resonance elliptically polarized light is developed. Depending on the type of the field-excited $(a)\leftrightarrow (b)$ transition, the stationary distribution of atoms over the sublevels of the final level $(c)$ coupled with the excited level only by the $(b)\to (c)$ spontaneous transition is either isotropic and does not depend on field parameters or anisotropic. In the latter case, the anisotropy is determined by both field polarization and (at fairly large level momentum values) field detuning and intensity.