Role of highly efficient collisions in collisional transfer of vibrational energy in benzophenone-foreign gas mixtures

Collisional losses of vibrational energy in mixtures of benzophenone excited by nitrogen laser radiation (λ=337 nm) and foreign gases (Ar, Kr, SF6, C5H12) were studied by time-resolved delayed luminescence. It is established that the intensities and rates of decay of the fast and slow components of delayed luminescence can be used to evaluate the characteristics of V–V– and V–T–transfer of vibrational energy. For the V-V-process, the efficiencies and mean energies transferred in a collision are determined. It is shown that in the mixture with multiatomic gases, vibrational equilibrium is reached after a few collisions, the number of which decreases as the molecule of the foreign gas becomes more complicated. The V–V–process is characterized by high efficiencies of collisions typical for “supercollisions”. The experimental characteristics of V-V-transfer correlate well with ergodic transfer of vibrational energy predicted by statistical theories. 0120 0126 V 3