The Determination of Mass Transport Coefficients and Vibrational Relaxation Rates of SpeciesFormed in Laser Photolysis Experiments

Abstract

A simple analytical solution of the equations which govern the formation, collisional relaxation, and mass transport rates of species produced in radially symmetric laser‐induced processes is given. These equations are specifically applied to the CO2 laser‐induced dissociations of CF2HCl and C2F3Cl dilute in argon. The concentration of the vibrational ground state of the CF2 radical product was probed as a function of time and pressure both during and after the photolyzing laser pulse by the laser‐excited fluorescence technique. From these measurements, the vibrational relaxation rate of ? CF2 in argon was determined to be k V T =2.0×10−15 cm3 sec−1 and its diffusion coefficient was found to be D=90 cm2 Torr sec−1 in argon