Knowledge Bank

Rates for electronic quenching of SO $A3\Pi v\prime -1$ have been measured for the rare gases, He, Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe and several diatomics and small polyatomics, $N2,O2,CF4$, and $SF6$. The rates are found to be 0.01 to 0.1 times gas kinetic. A good correlation is found between the rare gas quenching efficiencies and the product of the dipole polarizability, $\alpha$, and the square root of the reduced mass. The molecular species, however fall well off of the correlation line with rates much more efficient than predicted. A correlation with the intermolecular well depth, based on the collision complex model of Lin et $al1$ was also tried and appears to be of more general value.