Collisional deactivation for K in high-lying 2S and 2D states by H2

Non-adiabatic dynamics studies of the K(4p2P) + H2(X1Σ) reaction based on new diabatic potential energy surfaces

Global diabatic potential energy surfaces (PESs) of the KH2 system corresponding to the ground (12A') and first excited (22A') states were constructed for the first time. In ab initio calculations, the MRCI-F12 method with AVTZ and def2-QZVP basis sets was adopted and 17 865 ab initio energy points were calculated. The mixing angle, which is used to obtain the diabatic energies, was calculated by the molecular properties of the transition dipole moment. The diabatic PESs were fitted individually by the permutation invariant polynomial neural network method and the topographical features of the diabatic PESs are discussed in detail. The non-adiabatic dynamics studies of the K(4p2P) + H2(v0 = 0, 1, j0 = 0) reaction were carried out using the APH method based on the new diabatic PESs. The collision reaction processes K(4p2P) + H2(v0 = 0, 1, j0 = 0) → H + KH and the quenching processes K(4p2P) + H2(v0 = 0, 1, j0 = 0) → K(4s2S) + H2 were studied at the state-to-state level of theory. For the reaction process, the dynamics results indicated that the vibrational excitation of H2 was significantly more effective at promoting the reaction than the translational energy. In addition, the differential cross-sections were forward-biased scattering, which indicated that the direct abstraction mechanism plays a dominant role in the reaction. For the quenching process, the vibrational excitation of H2 molecules could improve the quenching efficiency obviously.

Significant effects of vibrational excitation of reactant in K + H2 → H + KH reaction based on a new neural network potential energy surface

The study of K + H2 collision has a long experimental history, but there have been few theoretical studies due to lack of a global potential energy surface (PES). In this study, a new global PES for the ground state of KH2 system was constructed based on numerous ab initio points, using the permutation invariant polynomial neural network method. The root mean square error (RMSE) of PES is very small (5.64 meV). On the new PES, time-dependent quantum wave packet (TDWP) and quasiclassical trajectory (QCT) calculations were carried out to study the dynamics of the K(2S) + H2(X1Σ+g) → H(2S) + KH(X1Σ+) reaction. Dynamics results show that (i) the K + H2(v = 0) → H + KH reaction scarcely occurred, (ii) the K + H2(v = 1) → H + KH reaction took place in small quantities, and (iii) the K + H2(v = 2) → H + KH reaction occurred in large quantities. This indicates that vibrational energy of the reactant is significantly more effective at promoting the reaction than the translational energy. This characteristic stems from a major physical model in reactive collisions: the vibrationally excited H2 molecule and K atom collide first in a T-geometric configuration and the vibrational motion of the H2 molecule helps separate the two H atoms a large distance after the collision. At a large H-H distance, a broad well exists on the PES, so the heavy K atom could pull back the light H atom to initiate the reaction. Similar to the reactive channel, vibrational excitation of the reactant also has a significant effect on the collision-induced dissociation channel.

Energy transfer in Li(4p) + (Ar,H2,CH4) collisions

The direct collisional energy transfer processes of the excited states of Li(4p) by several gases are investigated under gas cell conditions. The nonreactive absorption profiles of the collision complex are monitored as a function of laser detuning from the Li(2s-4p) resonances. Pronounced structures in the absorption spectra along with high level ab initio calculations of the relevant potential energy surfaces are used to understand the experimental results.