Electronic to vibrational energy transfer from I*2P1/2 to HF

Abstract

The fraction of the total quenching of I*5²P_1/2 by HF that occurs by electronic to vibrational (E–V) energy transfer has been determined. Measurements were made by analysis of the HF vibrational fluorescence following photolytic creation of I*. The near‐resonant process populating HF (v=2) was found to account for 35±4% of the quenching. The fraction of the quenching proceeding by the nonresonant E–V process populating HF (v=1) was found to be 5±4%. The results demonstrate the influence of resonance in the E–V mechanism and suggest that the most significant relaxation route for this system is electronic to rotational and translational (E–R,T) energy transfer.