M,J diffusion and torsional oscillation in CHF3 and N2O

Abstract

It is shown that the molecular dynamical representation appropriate to the far infra-red absorption (6–200 cm^–1) of liquid N₂O and CHF₃ observed by Baise ¹ falls between the extremes of adiabatic collision-interrupted free rotation (the M and J diffusion models) and torsional oscillation within a multi-well potential (the Brot–Larkin model). The role of induced dipolar absorption is discussed in relation to models such as these which deal only with the motion of the permanent dipole.