Collisional broadening of CO2 IR lines. II. Calculations

Abstract

The ability of available theoretical models in describing broadening mechanisms is tested for the CO2–O2, CO2–CO2, and CO2–N2 systems. It is shown that the Anderson–Tsao–Curnutte theory is inaccurate since short-range forces can contribute significantly to broadening. We use the approach of Robert and Bonamy, but the usual expansion of the atom–atom potential to the fourth order around the intermolecular distance appears insufficient at short distances for these particular systems. We propose a better representation of the radial dependence of the atom–atom potential, while keeping the previous analytical expression of the cross section. Satisfactory results are obtained for both the rotational quantum number dependence of room-temperature CO2–O2, CO2–CO2, and CO2–N2 half-widths and the evolution of CO2–N2 broadening with temperature. It is shown that the isotropic part of the potential involved in the trajectory calculation must be coherently deduced from the atom–atom interaction potential.