Rotationally inelastic collisions between a molecule in a2S+1Sgr; electronic state and an openhyphen;shell target: General quantum analysis and experimental measurement of statehyphen;resolved cross sections for CaCl(Xthinsp;2Sgr;+)+NO(Xthinsp;2Sgr;)

摘要

The general quantum treatment for the scattering of molecules in2S+1sum; electronic states by openhyphen;shell2Satoms is investigated, with particular emphasis given to the influence of the openhyphen;shell character of the atomic perturber on the collisional propensity for conservation of thee/fmolecular symmetry index. The moleculehyphen;statehyphen;resolved cross sections are expressed as a sum of spinhyphen;independent and spinhyphen;correlated terms. The spinhyphen;independent term is formally equivalent to the cross section for statehyphen;resolved transitions in a2S+1sum;hyphen;state molecule upon collision with a structureless target. The spinhyphen;correlated term is due solely to the electrostatic exchange forces arising from the openhyphen;shell nature of both the molecule and the atomic target. Recently calculated CaCl(Xthinsp;2sum;+)ndash;Ar cross sections are used to investigate the extent to whiche/fconservation depends on the relative magnitudes of these two contributions. Experimental statehyphen;tohyphen;state rotationally inelastic cross sections for the scattering of CaCl(Xthinsp;2sum;+) by the openhyphen;shell NO(Xthinsp;2prod;) molecule are presented and analyzed by means of this formalism.