Scattering of light by a metastable level of the hydrogen molecule

An analysis is made of the Rayleigh and Raman vibrational scattering of light by the c³П_u metastable level of the H₂ molecule. The polarizability of metastable H₂, HD, and D₂ molecules is analyzed to demonstrate the influence of the nuclear motion on processes which are of the second order in the perturbation theory. The quantum defect approximation and a spheroidal system of coordinates, which makes it possible to allow for the nonsphericity of the molecular fields, is used in the derivation of the optical-electron Green's function and of the electronic wave functions. Calculations are made of the polarizability, its derivative with respect to the separation between the nuclei in the molecule, and degree of depolarization in the Rayleigh and Raman scattering of ruby and neodymium laser radiation.