Collisional Transfer to the B State in N₂

Time-resolved spectra and intensities of the different vibrational bands from the B 3 Π g - A 3 Σ + u of N 2 have been measured as a function of pressure using the High Frequency Deflection technique. Both the pressure of nitrogen and added catalyst gases (He, Ne and Ar) were varied from 0.6 to 20 m torr. In the case of v ' = 6, 7, 11 and 12 strong pressure effects were noted both for the apparent lengthening of lifetimes and increase in intensities. Little or no pressure effects were seen for v ' = 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9 and 10. These results have been explained in terms of resonance collisional transfer in which a metastable state is transferred through collison to the B state. The total collisional transfer rate coefficient to the B state was determined to be approximately 10 -10 cm 3 s -1 , molecule. Data on the lifetimes extrapolated to zero pressure were used to derive the oscillator strength: f 00 abs = 1.69 ± 0.15 × 10 -3 .