Measurement of the V-V energy transfer rate from CO(v = 2) using tunable parametric oscillator excitation

A parametric oscillator has been employed to pump ground-state carbon monoxide molecules in a gas-phase sample directly to the second vibrational level. The decay of the population of this level via vibration-vibration (V-V) energy transfer with ground-state molecules, CO(v = 2) + CO(v = 0) → CO(v = 1) + CO(v = 1), has been monitored as a function of pressure, resulting in the first experimental determination of the rate constant for this process, 6.2 × 104 sec−1 Torr−1 at 295 °K.