Thermalization of suprathermal N(4S) atoms in He and Ar gases
The potential energies of nitrogen atoms interacting with helium and argon atoms are determined and the rates of thermalization of initially energetic nitrogen atoms traversing bath gases of helium and argon atoms are obtained. The C6 dispersion coefficients are determined to be 5.79 a.u. for N-He and 39.42 a.u. for N-Ar. Quantum mechanical calculations of the differential scattering cross-sections are carried out and used to find solutions to the kinetic Boltzmann equations. The rates of thermalization are compared with experiments on the translational energy relaxation of nitrogen atoms produced by the photolysis of NO2. The accuracy of the hard sphere approximation in interpreting the data is explored, and found to be satisfactory with hard sphere cross-sections of 1.50 10-15 cm2 for helium and 1.98 10-15 cm2 for argon.
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- Chemical Physics
- 0307 Theoretical and Computational Chemistry
- 0306 Physical Chemistry (incl. Structural)
- 0202 Atomic, Molecular, Nuclear, Particle and Plasma Physics
Citation
Published In
DOI
EISSN
ISSN
Publication Date
Volume
Issue
Start / End Page
Related Subject Headings
- Chemical Physics
- 0307 Theoretical and Computational Chemistry
- 0306 Physical Chemistry (incl. Structural)
- 0202 Atomic, Molecular, Nuclear, Particle and Plasma Physics