Results of transport property and rotational alignment experiments of the atmospherically important molecule N2+ are presented, as measured in a flow-drift apparatus using the technique of single-frequency laser-induced fluorescence (LIF). A trace amount of N2+ is drifted in helium as a buffer gas; the external axial electric field of the drift tube varies the center-of-mass collision energy of the ion-neutral pair. The net effect over hundreds of buffer gas collisions is to establish a steady-state anisotropic ion velocity distribution, the precise character of which is determined by the ion-neutral interaction potential, mass ratio, and field strength. A single-frequency ring dye laser is used to probe Doppler profiles of various rotational lines of the (v\textquoteright,v\textquoteright\textquoteright) = (0,0) band in the B 2∑u+ - X 2∑g+ system at 390 nm. The single-frequency cw laser technique allows one to measure the velocity component distribution function (VCDF) along the laser propagation direction k; the VCDF is a projection of the complete ion velocity distribution function. Additionally, the rotational alignment of the ions as a function of one component of sub-Doppler laboratory velocity is probed by polarized LIF.
N2 -Results of transport property and rotational alignment experiments of the atmospherically important molecule N2+ are presented, as measured in a flow-drift apparatus using the technique of single-frequency laser-induced fluorescence (LIF). A trace amount of N2+ is drifted in helium as a buffer gas; the external axial electric field of the drift tube varies the center-of-mass collision energy of the ion-neutral pair. The net effect over hundreds of buffer gas collisions is to establish a steady-state anisotropic ion velocity distribution, the precise character of which is determined by the ion-neutral interaction potential, mass ratio, and field strength. A single-frequency ring dye laser is used to probe Doppler profiles of various rotational lines of the (v\textquoteright,v\textquoteright\textquoteright) = (0,0) band in the B 2∑u+ - X 2∑g+ system at 390 nm. The single-frequency cw laser technique allows one to measure the velocity component distribution function (VCDF) along the laser propagation direction k; the VCDF is a projection of the complete ion velocity distribution function. Additionally, the rotational alignment of the ions as a function of one component of sub-Doppler laboratory velocity is probed by polarized LIF.
PB - University of Colorado Boulder PY - 1998 TI - Laser Probing of Transport Properties and Rotational Alignment of N2+ Drifted in He ER -