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Title: Reaction dynamics of electronically excited alkali atoms with simple molecules

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:5796107

The reactions of electronically excited sodium have been studied using the crossed molecular beams method. Reactions of Na(3S,3P,4D,5S) + HCl have been studied in detail. A large increase in the reactive cross section with electronic energy is observed. A change in the reaction mechanism leads to very different product scattering distributions for Na(3P) vs Na(4D,5S) scattering. Laser polarization dependences show that this is due to long range electron transfer in Na(4D) + HCl that does not occur for Na(3P) + HCl. No reaction was observed for Na(3S,3P,4D) + HF up to collision energies of 13 kcal/mole. Na(3S,3P) + HBr behave much like the equivalent HCL reactions, except that the reduced endothermicity leads to more ground state reaction for HBr. Chapter III describes the reaction of Na with O/sub 2/. No reaction is seen for Na(3S,3P,4S,4P,5S) + O/sub 2/. Reaction to form NaO + O is observed for Na(4D) + O/sub 2/ above the threshold translational energy of 15 +- kcal/mole. The reactions of Na(3S,3P,4D) + CH/sub 3/Br are described in chapter IV. The alkali halide product is predominantly back scattered due to steric restrictions. With increasing electronic excitation, a small relaxation of the restriction is observed. The reactions of Na(3S,3P) + Cl/sub 2/ are described in chapter V. At a collision energy of 6 kcal/mole, the reactive cross section increases 60% on electronic excitation, while at a higher collision energy, 19 kcal/mole, there is an increase of only 16%.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley Lab., CA (USA)
DOE Contract Number:
AC03-76SF00098
OSTI ID:
5796107
Report Number(s):
LBL-21205; ON: DE86012010
Resource Relation:
Other Information: Portions of this document are illegible in microfiche products. Thesis
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English