Vibrational energy transfer processes collision-induced, intramolecular

Single vibrational levels of the 82 state of aniline, formed by excitation within a He-aniline molecular beam, have been shown to relax in low-energy collisions with the He diluent at rates which are markedly dependent upon the identity of the vibrational mode excited. Intramolecular vibrational energy transfer within the 82 state induced by collision with HjO and CH3F is also mode specific, and rates for these processes are of the same order for these two collision partners and considerably faster than for energy transfer caused by Ar. Within p-alkylanilines, collisionless intramolecular vibrational relaxation from the initially excited NHj inversion mode to the alkyl chain modes appears to be complete within 1 ns, ... 

The efficient quenching of the atomic and molecular fluorescence by collisions has been observed in early studies of the luminescence of gaseous compounds (for a review of early work see Ref. 2). In a large number of cases these processes have been explained by the electronic-to-vibrational energy transfer, charge transfer or excited-complex (excimer or exciplex) formation. There remains, however, an important class of collisional processes corresponding to the essentially intramolecular relaxation induced (or assisted) by collisions with chemically inert partners. In such... 

For the selective enhancement of the wanted reaction channel by laser excitation of the reactants, the time span At between photon absorption and completion of the reaction is of fundamental importance. The excitation energy n hco (n = 1,2,...) pumped by photon absorption into a selected excited molecular level may be redistributed into other levels by unwanted relaxation processes before the system ends in the wanted reaction channel. It can, for instance, be radiated by spontaneous emission, or it may be redistributed by intramolecular radiationless transitions due to vibrational or spin-orbit couplings onto many other nearly degenerate molecular levels. However, these levels may not lead to the wanted reaction channel. At higher pressures collision-induced intra- or intermolecular energy transfer may also play an important role in enhancing or suppressing a specific reaction channel. 

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