Crossed beam (<i>E</i>–<i>V</i> <i>R</i> <i>T</i>) energy transfer experiment

Abstract

A molecular crossed beam apparatus which has been developed to perform electronic-to-vibrational, rotational, translational (E–V,R,T) energy transfer studies is described. Its capabilities are illustrated on the basis of a number of energy transfer spectra obtained for collision systems of the type Na*+Mol(ν,j) →Na+Mol (ν′,j′) where Na* represents a laser excited sodium atom and Mol a diatomic or polyatomic molecule. Because of the lack of reliable dynamic theories on quenching processes, statistical approaches such as the ’’linearly forced harmonic oscillator’’ and ’’prior distributions’’ have been used to model the experimental spectra. The agreement is found to be satisfactory, so even such simple statistics may be useful to describe (E–V,R,T) energy transfer processes in collision systems with small molecules.