Vibrational distribution of populations and kinetics of the CO–N2 system in the fundamental and harmonic regions

Abstract

The vibroluminescence of carbon monoxide excited by activated nitrogen is investigated under high resolution in the fundamental and harmonic regions. The rotational population, corrected in some cases for self-absorption, shows a Boltzmann distribution characterized by a rotational temperature of 400 °K, but the vibrational population definitely shows a non-Boltzmann distribution which coincides very accurately with a Treanor-type distribution. This distribution is due, as explained by the theory of Treanor, to the anharmonicity of the molecules and to the inefficiency of the vibration–translation transfer. The variation of the number of vibrational quanta as a function of time allows a determination of the vibration–vibration rate transfer and shows the intervention of a deactivation process interpreted as due to CN radicals. Results in the harmonic region give ratios of the square of matrix elements which are compared with theoretical values and with other experimental values.