Initial anticrossing between Stark manifold <Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis> and <Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis>+1 in Na

We present the theoretical results for the positions and widths of the initial anticrossing between Stark manifold n and n + 1 in sodium, obtained by using the method of diagonalization in which zero-field wave functions are chosen from a kind of atomic potential model. These results can provide the quantitative information for understanding the microwave ionization process, whose rate-limiting step is probably the n to n + 1 transition performed at the first crossing between the outermost states of these two manifolds.