Fluorescent radiation from N2O

The action of light on N2O was studied by Leifson and continued in recent years by Wulf and Melvin, Dutta, and the present authors from experiments on its absorption spectra. The experimental data so far known indicate that under the action of light quanta of suitable wave-length N2O dissociates into a normal NO and N which may be in different excited metastable states as shown below. N2O + hv1 = NO + N (4S) (1) N2O + hv2 = NO + N (2D) (2) N2O + hv3 = NO + N (2P) (3) These processes are inferred from the various starting points of continuous absorptions from a long wave-length limit, and with retransmitted patches of light occurring between these beginnings. The energies corresponding to hv1, hv2, hv3 are given by the different long wave beginnings of absorption at λ 2750, λ 1850, and λ 1580; the differences of energy between of these light quanta are respectively the values of 4S - 2D 2D - 2P of N.