A BOXCARS investigation of the interspecies V–V energy transfer from highly excited SF6 to CH4

Abstract

The BOXCARS technique was used to investigate the V–V energy transfer between highly excited SF6 and CH4. The rates and the amounts of energy transferred to both the ν1 and ν3 modes depend strongly on excitation intensity and partial pressure of SF6 and CH4, and within experimental error, the variation of these quantities in both modes is identical, which is contrary to the situation in other polyatomic molecules. The results indicate that V–T energy transfer in CH4 plays an important role in the relaxation of the excess vibrational energy transferred from SF6 to CH4, and that the intermode V–V energy transfer between the ν1 and ν3 modes of CH4 is much faster than the interspecies V–V energy transfer between highly excited SF6 and CH4.