ELASTIC-SCATTERING DYNAMICS OF TRANSLATIONALLY AND ROTATIONALLY ALIGNED MOLECULAR FRAGMENTS VIA DOPPLER-RESOLVED LASER SPECTROSCOPY - OH(X(2)PI(3/2))+AR/HE

The collision dynamics of the OH + Ar/He systems have been studied following production of the translationally and rotationally aligned radical species via polarized photolysis of H2O2 at a wavelength of 248 nm. Elastically scattered OH molecules were probed via polarized Fourier-transform Doppler spectroscopy. The manner in which the speed distribution and laboratory speed averaged translational anisotropy of the OH photofragments change with time is well reproduced by a hard sphere collision model. In addition, the degradation of the laboratory speed averaged v-j correlation by collision with argon is best reproduced if the direction of the OH rotational angular momentum vector is conserved throughout an elastic collision encounter.