USING LASER-PULSE DYNAMICS TO PROBE THE RELAXATION OF AN ANISOTROPIC VELOCITY DISTRIBUTION OF EXCITED IODINE

The pulse characteristics of a photolytic, gain-switched iodine laser are a sensitive measure for relaxation processes that occur in the act ive medium. On a time scale shorter than a few microseconds this conce rns the relaxation of the speed and the angular parts of the anisotrop ic velocity distribution which is produced by the photodissociation of the parent molecule CF3I. A comprehensive rate equation model of the laser dynamics is fit to experimental data, to obtain time constants f or these collision-controlled relaxation processes for various buffer gases and pressures. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.