Chemical lasers produced from O(¹D) atom reactions. V. Carbon monoxide stimulated emission from flash-initiated O₃ + XCN systems

CO infrared stimulated emission has been observed from flash-initiated O₃ + XCN (X = I, Br, Cl, and CN) mixtures with SF₆ diluent. About 60 P(J) lines of vibrational transitions from 13→ 12 down to 5 → 4 are present. Dilution in SF₆ is essential for stimulated emission; rare gas diluents quench laser emission by collisionally deactivating O(¹D) to O(³P). Mass spectrometric analysis shows ∼20% conversion of XCN per flash due to reaction with O(¹D). The reaction producing vibrationally excited CO† is O(¹D) + CN(X²,Σ, v) → CO^†(¹Σ⁺, v′) + N(²D), where v ≤ 4 and v′ ≤ 15. Additionally, there may be some contribution to CO† from the reaction of O(¹D) with CN(A²π).