Differential cross sections for elastic and reactive collisions between Na and multiple photon excited SF 6

Abstract

Differential cross sections for collisions of Na and SF 6 from beam experiments are presented. The SF 6 is vibrationally excited to the 5 v 3 level with a CO 2 laser. Enhancement of reactive scattering is detected for different energies (0.25 eV, 1.04 eV and 2.70 eV) and at laboratory angles between 10 and 75 deg. The amount of elastically scattered Na from excited SF 6 always decreases in comparison with ground state scattering. The experiments show that the reaction is more efficient if vibrational energy is put into SF 6 as compared with exciting Na electronically.