WHAT DETERMINES THE DISPOSAL OF ENERGY IN THE PRODUCTS OF ELECTRONICALLY INELASTIC-COLLISIONS - A COMPARATIVE CASE-STUDY OF SICL AND SIF

Although the rates of collisional removal of electronically excited st ates of small molecules have been extensively characterised, a general understanding of the factors which determine the branching over avail able product levels is still lacking. The purpose of this article is t o shed light on this held by concentrating on the information which ha s been collected on one particular family of systems, excited states o f the silicon halides SiCl and SiF. An extended interpretation of the data in terms of the relevant potential energy surfaces is presented. The specific conclusions are set in the context of other related work. How they reflect on the likely viability of simple empirical models i s discussed. Opinions are offered on future experimental directions wh ich are likely to be fruitful, and a pressing general need for complem entary theoretical support is identified.