Knowledge Bank

In most molecular systems, rotational relaxation rates are a strong function of the speed of absorber molecules in a monitored population. This speed-dependence contains information about the interaction potential. A new method of coupling Doppler and wall-broadening effects to a speed-dependent rotational relaxation rate is described which allows the speed-dependence to be extracted from the non-exponentiality of transient decays. Experimental results from $T2$ decays of $NH3,OCS,CH3Cl,HCOH$, and other systems are described.