Inelastic F–H2 scattering
Abstract
We present a first experimental study of inelastic, rotational excitation cross-sections in a reactive collision. By preliminary model calculations we show that these measurements provide an ideal method for probing the anisotropy in the rate-determining entrance-channel valley of the potential-energy surface for the F–H2 reaction. A comparison with the non-reactive Ne–D2, H2 scattring system reveals the importance of a surprisingly large fourth-order Legendre term in the anisotropic expansion of the F–H2 potential. This particular shape feature is related to the incipient chemical reaction and is absent in the more ellipsoidal shape of non-reactive potentials for rare gas–H2 systems.