Vibrational deactivation of CO2(0001) by ethane

The deactivation of CO₂(00⁰1) by ethane in the temperature range 300–600 K has been studied using a laser induced fluorescence technique. The energy transfer cross section decreased from 0.23 Ų at 300 K to 0.16 Ų at 600 K. The magnitude of the cross section is consistent with the expectation that near resonant V-V energy transfer processes are responsible for the energy transfer between CO₂(00⁰1) and ethane during collisions even though the observed temperature dependence of the energy transfer cross section does not follow that predicted by the existing theories.