A crossed-beam study of the state-resolved integral cross sections for the inelastic scattering of OH(X 2Π) with CO and N2

Abstract

State-resolved cross sections for the inelastic scattering of OH(X 2Π) with CO and N2 have been measured in a crossed molecular beam apparatus over the energy range from 0.5 to 5.5 kcal mol−1. The magnitude and shape of the excitation functions for the same OH final states were virtually independent of the two targets except near threshold. Both spin–orbit conserving and spin–orbit changing transitions have been investigated. Cross sections for spin–orbit changing transitions of large ΔN were approximately the same magnitude as those for spin–orbit conserving transitions. For small ΔN, however, the spin–orbit conserving transitions became more favorable. The Λ-doublet ratio, Π(A′)/Π(A″), in the Π3/2 (F1) manifold differed from unity only for the N2 target for which the ratio became increasingly larger than unity as N′ increased. The observed fine-structure effects were nearly the same as those from the corresponding (reverse) reactive collisions, and a close connection between the inelastic and reactive events has been conjectured.