Rotational energy transfer in Na(/sub 2/ (A. sigma. ) colliding with Xe, Kr, Ar, Ne, He, H/sub 2/, CH/sub 4/, and N/sub 2/: Experiment and fitting laws

Journal Article · Sun Mar 15 04:00:00 EST 1981 · J. Chem. Phys.; (United States)

OSTI ID:6524106

Brunner, T A; Smith, N; Karp, A W; Pritchard, D E

Using the method of laser-induced fluorescence, we have measured level to level rate constants for rotational energy transfer (RET) in Na(/sub 2/ colliding with Xe, Kr, Ar, Ne, He, H/sub 2/, N/sub 2/, and CH/sub 4/. For each target gas we varied the initial rotational quantum number ji-italic over a wide range, typically 4--100, and measured approximately 60 rate constants with an average error of between 6% and 9%. The resulting base of 479 rate constants is used to test several recently proposed fitting laws. The energy corrected sudden scaling law of DePristo et al., when combined with the assumption of a power gap law for the basis rate constants k/sub l/..-->..0, fit with only 3 parameters all of the data for a given target gas with 7%--12% average percentage deviation. Our statistical power gap law worked well and was generally the best law for those data sets with only one value of j/sub i/. The worst fits in all cases considered here were those using the exponential gap law of surprisal theory.

• Research Organization: Research Laboratory of Electronics and Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139
• OSTI ID: 6524106
• Journal Information: J. Chem. Phys.; (United States), Journal Name: J. Chem. Phys.; (United States) Vol. 74:6; ISSN JCPSA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

640304* -- Atomic
Molecular & Chemical Physics-- Collision Phenomena
74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
ALKALI METALS
ALKANES
ARGON
ATOM COLLISIONS
ATOM-MOLECULE COLLISIONS
COLLISIONS
ELEMENTS
ENERGY LEVELS
ENERGY TRANSFER
EXCITED STATES
FLUIDS
GASES
HELIUM
HYDROCARBONS
HYDROGEN
KRYPTON
METALS
METHANE
MOLECULE COLLISIONS
MOLECULE-MOLECULE COLLISIONS
MOLECULES
NEON
NITROGEN
NONMETALS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
RARE GASES
ROTATIONAL STATES
SODIUM
XENON