Electronically excited bromine atoms Br(42P½). Part 2.—Spin orbit relaxation

Abstract

Electronically excited bromine atoms Br(4²P_½), generated from the vacuum ultra-violet flash photolysis of CF₃Br, have been studied using kinetic spectroscopy in the vacuum ultra-violet. The collisional deactivation of these atoms to their ground state Br(4²P) has been investigated for the gases N₂, CO, CF₄, H₂, CH₄, D₂, D₂O, H₂O, O₂ and NO and the efficiencies of collisional quenching found to be 1.1 × 10^–5, 3.2 × 10^–5, 9.5 × 10^–4, 7.8 × 10^–3, 1.4 × 10^–2, 1.8 × 10^–2, 4.9 × 10^–2, 0.16, 0.16 and 0.22, for the gases in the above order. The mechanism of spin orbit relaxation of Br(4²P_½) and I(5²P_½) is discussed in reference to present data for the relaxation of these electronically excited atoms.