COLLISION-INDUCED DEACTIVATION OF PH2((A)OVER-TILDE-(2)A(1), V(2)'=1,0) AND PH2((X)OVER-TILDE-B-2(1), V(2)''=1) BY DIATOMIC-MOLECULES

Deactivation of the bending mode upsilon(2)' = 1 and upsilon(2)' = 0 v ibrational levels of PH2((A) over tilde (2)A(1)), and of the upsilon(2 )'' = 1 level of ground state PH2((X) over tilde B-2(1)) due to collis ions with the diatomic molecules H-2, N-2, CO, and NO has been investi gated. The Parmenter and co-worker's, the Thayer and Yardley's, and th e collision complex theories have been used to rationalize the PH2((A) over tilde( 2)A(1)) quenching data. Explanations for the deviations o f the quenching data due to these molecular quenchers from the variati on trend found, in a previous work, for the rare gas quenchers have be en proposed. For the vibrational relaxation of PH2((X) over tilde B-2( 1); 0, 1, 0), the data interpretation is based essentially on the theo ries by Schwartz, Slawsky, and Herzfeld-Tanczos, and Moore. (C) 1998 A merican Institute of Physics. [S0021-9606(98)02144-8].