Abstract
State selective differential cross sections for rotationally inelastic scattering of NO (Ji=0.5, 1.5, F1→Jf=2.5–12.5, F1 and Jf=1.5–9.5, F2) from He and D2 measured by crossed molecular beam product imaging are reported. The differential cross sections were extracted from the data images using a new basis image iterative fitting technique. The images typically exhibit a single broad rotational rainbow maximum that shifts from the forward to the backward scattering direction with increasing ΔJ. The angle of the rainbow maximum was lower at a given ΔJ for D2 than for He as a collision partner. At a collision energy of ∼500 cm−1, primarily the repulsive part of the potential surface is probed, which can be modeled with a two-dimensional hard ellipse potential. This model for rotationally inelastic scattering is shown to qualitatively match the experimental differential cross sections. A more advanced correlated electron pair approximation potential energy surface for NO+He does not give substantially better agreement with the experiment. The differences between scattering of He and D2 are partially attributed to their differing structure and partially to a small difference in collision energy used in the two experiments.
Published Version
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