A BOXCARS INVESTIGATION OF THE INTERSPECIES V-V ENERGY-TRANSFER FROM HIGHLY EXCITED SF6 TO N-2

The BOXCARS technique was used to investigate the V-V energy transfer between highly excited SF6 and N-2. It was found that a Boltzmann popu lation distribution among vibrational levels of N-2 is present by 1 mu s after laser excitation of SF6 and is maintained during the energy-t ransfer processes. The maximum energy transferred to N-2 increases lin early with the increase of the average number of photons absorbed (($) over bar n) by SF6 in the range ($) over bar n = 15-30. The maximum e nergy transferred to the N-2 vibrational levels increases with the par tial pressure of SF6 and decreases with the partial pressure of N-2. T he apparent rate of energy increase in the N-2 vibrational levels incr eases with both partial pressures of SF6 and N-2. However, both the ra te and the amount of energy transferred to N-2 vibrational levels depe nd more strongly on the partial pressure of SF6 than on the partial pr essure of N-2 A model calculation produces a reasonable fit to the exp erimental data.