State specific collision dynamics of vibrationally excited nitric oxide at collision energies over five orders of magnitude
No Thumbnail Available
Meeting name
Sponsors
Date
Journal Title
Format
Thesis
Subject
Abstract
[EMBARGOED UNTIL 12/01/2025] This thesis presents studies on rotationally inelastic collisions of highly vibrationally excited NO molecules prepared in single rotational and parity levels at v=9 and v=10 using stimulated emission pumping (SEP). This state preparation is employed in a recently developed crossed molecular beam apparatus. This thesis reports scattering studies involving three different beam geometries: near- copropagating, near-counterpropagating, and intrabeam configurations. These configurations enabled tuning collision energies spanning over five orders of magnitude. The near-copropagating and intrabeam geometry of the molecular beams permitted very wide tuning of the collision energy, from far above room temperature down to 1 K where we test the theoretical treatment of the attractive part of the potential and the difference potential. Two superthermal collision energies ~ 1 eV were achieved using near-copropagating beam geometry. We have obtained differential cross sections for state-to-state collisions of vibrationally excited NO with Argon (Ar), Neon (Ne) and Krypton (Kr) in both spin-orbit manifolds using velocity map imaging (VMI). in general, overall good agreement of the experimental results was seen with quantum mechanical close- coupling calculations done on both coupled-cluster and multi-reference configuration interaction potential energy surfaces. Probing cold collisions of NO carrying a ~2 eV of vibrational excitation allows us to test state-of-the-art theory in this extreme nonequilibrium regime.
Table of Contents
DOI
PubMed ID
Degree
Ph. D.