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Title: Rotationally resolved hot atom collisional excitation of CO/sub 2/ 00/sup 0/1 and 00/sup 0/2 stretching vibrations by time-resolved diode laser spectroscopy

Journal Article · · J. Chem. Phys.; (United States)
OSTI ID:5375942

A tunable infrared diode laser has been used to monitor the time-resolved absorption of rovibrationally excited CO/sub 2/ molecules produced in collisions with fast hydrogen atoms from the 193 nm excimer laser photolysis of H/sub 2/S. Nascent relative rotational population distributions were measured for the 00/sup 0/1 and 00/sup 0/2 vibrational states in CO/sub 2/ following collisional excitation. The nascent distributions for both of these states were found to be significantly displaced from the 300 K Boltzmann distribution with peaks at J = 31 and J = 34 for 00/sup 0/1 and 00/sup 0/2, respectively. An approximate diffusion treatment for the mass transport of fast moving hydrogen atoms out of the region of the diode laser probe beam was developed and used to obtain approximate absolute scattering cross sections. Sufficient energy is available in the H/CO/sub 2/ collision process to excite 00/sup 0/1 rotational states with J greater than 140. The fall-off in excitation probability for J>31 is ascribed to the small impact parameter necessary to produce vibrationally excited CO/sub 2/ (00/sup 0/1). This in turn limits the total angular momentum available in those collisions which actually produce 00/sup 0/1. These results are compared with previous experiments measuring the total probability for collisional excitation of all ..nu../sub 3/ quanta as well as with various models for inelastic collisional scattering.

Research Organization:
Department of Chemistry and Columbia Radiation Laboratory, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027
OSTI ID:
5375942
Journal Information:
J. Chem. Phys.; (United States), Vol. 88:10
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English