Vacuum ultra-violet photoelectron spectroscopy of transient species. Part 6.—A study of vibrationally excited hydrogen and nitrogen
Abstract
The vacuum ultra-violet photoelectron spectra of hydrogen and nitrogen subjected to microwave discharges were recorded. In both cases there was clear evidence of vibrational excitation of the molecular species. Analysis of the observed spectra showed that the populations of excited vibrational levels corresponded to Boltzmann distributions with effective vibrational temperatures of (5 950 ± 550) K and (3 100 ± 400) K for nitrogen and hydrogen respectively.
Attempts to extend this technique to a study of vibrationally excited nitrogen produced from the reaction of N(4S) with NO(X2Π) were only qualitatively successful.