Near-resonant electronic energy transfer from NF (a 1Δ) to Bi

The rate constant for the near-resonant electronic energy transfer process NF(a 1Δ)+Bi(4S3/2) → NF(X 3Σ) +Bi(2D3/2)+16 cm−1 has been measured to be 1×10−9 cm3 molecule−1 sec−1. The effective cross section (∼200 Å2) is one of the largest that has been measured for such a process, and cannot be accounted for in terms of a long-range interaction between charge distributions.