Two-color resonant multiphoton ionization study of CO. The rotational energy transfer behavior of CO A1 Πstate

Two-color resonant multiphoton ionization provides a novel technique, complementary to LIF, for studying state-to-state molecular relaxation dynamics. A set of formulae applicable to two-color pulsed laser ionization experiments has been derived to evaluate the rotational energy transfer probability for CO(A)-CO(X)collision pairs. The magnitude of this probability is on the order of 1/10 for rotational quantum jump ΔJ = ±1 and diminishes with increasing ΔJ. For the same > J(<±3), a transition with e/f symmetry conservation is always more probable than that with an e/f change.