Angular distributions for the inelastic scattering of NO(X2Π) with O2(X3Σg−)

Abstract

The inelastic scattering of NO(XΠ) by O(XΣ) was studied at a mean collision energy of 550 cm using velocity-map ion imaging. The initial quantum state of the NO(XΠ, v = 0, j = 0.5, Ω=0.5, 𝜖 = -1, f) molecule was selected using a hexapole electric field, and specific Λ-doublet levels of scattered NO were probed using (1+1) resonantly enhanced multiphoton ionization. A modified "onion-peeling" algorithm was employed to extract angular scattering information from the series of "pancaked," nested Newton spheres arising as a consequence of the rotational excitation of the molecular oxygen collision partner. The extracted differential cross sections for NO(X) f→f and f→e Λ-doublet resolved, spin-orbit conserving transitions, partially resolved in the oxygen co-product rotational quantum state, are reported, along with O fragment pair-correlated rotational state population. The inelastic scattering of NO with O is shown to share many similarities with the scattering of NO(X) with the rare gases. However, subtle differences in the angular distributions between the two collision partners are observed.

Correlated energy transfer in rotationally and spin–orbit inelastic collisions of NO(X2Π1/2, j = 1/2f) with O2(X3Σg−)

“…It is, however, extremely challenging to experimentally resolve the individual circles, as the experimental blurring associated with, for instance, the collision energy spread and the crushing of spheres on the detector plane is in most cases much larger than the inherent spacing between the circles. [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] Recently, we reported the first observation of rotational product pair correlations in NO-O 2 inelastic collisions at a collision energy of 160 cm À1 , 13 by using a Stark decelerator to produce reagent beams of NO with very narrow velocity spread. 14 Here, we present a joint experimental and theoretical study of state-to-state resolved RET in the inelastic collisions of NO(X 2…”

Observation of correlated excitations in bimolecular collisions

“…Resolving the individual rings requires exceptional experimental resolutions, which are often not available in crossed beam experiments due to the velocity and angular spreads of the reagent beams. Recently, several state of the art experiments were performed to study collisions of NO and ammonia with several molecular collision partners (26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31), however, the direct experimental observation of rotational product pairs has remained elusive.…”

Molecular square dancing in CO-CO collisions

“…Correction of the imaging signal from density to flux, and extraction of collision induced alignment information was carried out, but because the extraordinary channel described in the text did not show special alignment effects within the signal to noise ratio of the data, the alignment-free moment was extracted for analysis of the radiusdependent angular distribution of the images, i.e., the (j' = 15, j") pair-correlated scattering data using an onion-peeling inversion program similar to that in Ref. (24). The results of this analysis are shown as Fig.…”