Molecular vibrational state distributions in collisions

✍ Scribed by Jorge A. Morales; Agustín C. Diz; Erik Deumens; Yngve Öhrn

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1995
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 637 KB
• Volume: 233
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0009-2614
• DOI: 10.1016/0009-2614(94)01472-8

✦ Synopsis

Experimental vibrational spectra of H, in the collision with a proton at 30 eV in the laboratory frame are compared to results from calculations using the electron nuclear dynamics. Nuclei are treated classically. Interpreting the classical vibration in terms of a coherent state yields quantum vibrational levels reproducing the experimental results. This result indicates that collision dynamics, including vibrational excitation, does not require numerical-grid wave packet dynamics for an understanding of the fundamental mechanisms involved, but that the concept of coherent state can provide a simple and accurate method to resolve product vibrational states from fully dynamical classical trajectories.