Efficiency of (R, T) energy transfer in He, Ar-N₂ collisions

Abstract

Accurate potential energy surfaces (PES), obtained from a theoretical optimization of several dynamical observables, were employed to study collisional energy transfers in He-N₂ and Ar-N₂ gaseous mixtures.

The impulsive approximation (IOS) regime was considered for computing rotational inelasticity between several levels of the target rotor and their behaviour was examined with respect to specific features of the two PES. When the different mass factors are taken into consideration one finds that the nitrogen interaction with lighter He atoms exhibits here stronger dependence on relative orientations, hence greater efficiency in transferring energy from one degree of freedom to the other under impulsive scattering conditions.