Pressure Dependence of Some Infrared and Vacuum Ultraviolet Bands Occurring in Active Nitrogen

By comparing the infrared (7000 to 11 000 A) and vacuum ultraviolet (1050 to 1350 A) nitrogen afterglow emission to the visible (5300 to 6500 A) afterglow it has been determined that: (1) all these portions of the afterglow spectrum decay identically with time; (2) the predominant emission in the vacuum ultraviolet between 1050 and 1350 A may be attributed to the Lyman-Birge-Hopfield bands from the 6, 5, 4 vibration levels and that the population of these levels is collisionally deactivated by molecular nitrogen with a probaability of 1×10—2/collision; and (3) that apparently half the intensity of the first positive infrared bands with ν′<6 are excited through an intermediate state or complex whose lifetime is no shorter than 10—7 sec and which, in the absence of collisions, does not contribute to the emission in the regions between 1050 and 11 000 A that have been monitored.