Determination of nitrogen V-V transfer rates by stimulated Raman pumping

Stimulated Raman scattering is used to vibrationally excite pure N-2 in the pressure range 300-760 Torr at room temperature. The subsequent temporal evolution of the populations of vibrational levels as high as v = 6 is probed by spontaneous Raman scattering. The experimental results are compared to predictions from a Master Equation kinetics modeling code, incorporating V-V energy transfer rate coefficients derived from several published theoretical models. Predictions using the rate coefficients given by the three-dimensional Forced Harmonic Oscillator Free Rotator (FHO-FR) model are found to give the best overall agreement with the experimental data.. although agreement with the three-dimensional models of Billing and Fisher, and Bogdanov et al. is also found to be quite good. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.