Dependence of vibrational energy transfer and bond dissociation on initial excitation and phases in O2(0)+O2(v)

Abstract

The dependence of vibrational energy transfer and bond dissociation on the initial vibrational energy and initial phases in the collision of two oxygen molecules O2(0)+O2(v) has been studied using classical trajectory procedures. When the initial vibrational energy of O2(v) is not large, the energy gained by O2(0) is mainly through the V→V pathway, but as the initial excitation increases the contribution of translational motion becomes important. For the highly excited O2(v), most trajectories lead to T→V energy transfer, and for such molecules dissociation probabilities are found to increase linearly with the initial excitation. The dissociation of O2(v) is sensitively dependent on the initial vibrational phase. For v=1, the resonant energy exchange probability is a linear function of the collision energy.