Collisional Deactivation of CO (a 3Π)

Using a weak, pulsed, Tesla‐type discharge, the ${\mathrm{(a\hspace{0.17em}}}^3{\mathrm{\Pi )\; v}}^{\prime }\text{= 0}$ , 1 states of CO were generated and their rate coefficients for deactivation by CO and NO were measured by observing the time decay of the (0, 0) and (1, 0) CO Cameron bands. The rate constants for quenching of the $v^{\prime }\text{= 0}$ , 1 levels of $\mathrm{CO}{\mathrm{(a\hspace{0.17em}}}^3\mathrm{\Pi )}$ were found to be $k_0{\text{=1.2×10}}^{\text{−10}}$ and $k_1{\text{=2.8×10}}^{\text{−10}}\hspace{0.17em}{\mathrm{cm}}^3\mathrm{/\; (}\sec ·\mathrm{molecule})$ . Quenching by NO gave $k_0^{\prime }{\text{= 3.1×10}}^{\text{−10}}$ and $k_1^{\prime }{\text{= 7.0×10}}^{\text{−10}}\hspace{0.17em}{\mathrm{cm}}^3\mathrm{/\; (}\sec ·\mathrm{molecule})$ , with an error limit of $\text{±25 \%}$ on all four numbers. The efficiencies of energy transfer between $\mathrm{CO}{\mathrm{(a\hspace{0.17em}}}^3{\mathrm{\Pi )\; v}}^{\prime }\text{= 0}$ , 1 and NO to give $\mathrm{NO}{\mathrm{(A\hspace{0.17em}}}^2{\mathrm{\Sigma )\; v}}^{\prime }\text{= 0}$ , 1, respectively, were determined by measuring the decay rates and intensities of the (0, 2) and (1, 3) NO gamma bands and the (0, 0) and (1, 0) Cameron bands for a fixed concentration of CO and NO. The efficiencies were found to be $g_0\text{=15 \%}$ and $g_1\text{=25 \%}$ , with an error limit of $\text{±10 \%}$ .