Knowledge Bank

Recent spectroscopic experiments have shown that vibrational energy may be stored in liquids for times as short as $10-12$ sec or as long as 1 sec. In cases where a vibrationally excited molecule can transfer energy to a near resonant vibrational level, the $V\to V$ process can occur in times as short as $10-12$ sec. For a cryogenic liquid such as nitrogen, relaxation of vibrational energy is inefficient and the $V\to T$ time is 1 sec. In liquids where the vibrational storage time is long this energy may be used to promote unusual chemical reactions in cryogenic systems as well as to generate population inversions to produce Infrared lasing.