Collisionless dissociation of SF6 using two resonant frequency CO2 laser fields

The collisionless dissociation of SF₆ has been studied using simultaneous irradiation by two frequencies from a CO₂ laser which are both nearly resonant with the SF_6v3 absorption band. It was found that the dissociation was enhanced, and occurred over a wider frequency range, than for single frequency dissociation. No threshold effect was observed for a weak resonant and a much higher energy field pumping slightly off-resonance. For such two frequency irradiation, the peak in the dissociation curve was found to be shifted to lower frequencies with respect to that for single frequency dissociation.