title: Comparison of experimental time-of-flight spectra of the HF products from the F+H2 reaction with exact quantum mechanical calculations.
abstract: High resolution HF product time-of-flight spectra measured for the reactive scattering of F atoms from n-H2(p-H2) molecules at collision energies between 69 and 81 meV are compared with exact coupled-channel quantum mechanical calculations based on the Stark-Werner ab initio ground state potential energy surface. Excellent agreement between the experimental and computed rotational distributions is found for the HF product vibrational states v'=1 and v'=2. For the v'=3 vibrational state the agreement, however, is less satisfactory, especially for the reaction with p-H2. The results for v'=1 and v'=2 confirm that the reaction dynamics for these product states is accurately described by the ground electronic state 1 (2)A' potential energy surface. The deviations for HF(v'=3, j' > or =2) are attributed to an enhancement of the reaction resulting from the 25% fraction of excited ((2)P(12)) fluorine atoms in the reactant beam.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Energy Problems of Chemical Physics, Russia Academy of Sciences, Leninskiî prospect 38, Building 2, Moscow 119334, Russia. rusin@chph.ras.ru
authors.forename: Lev Yu
authors.initials: LY
authors.lastname: Rusin
authors.forename: Mikhail B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Sevryuk
authors.forename: J Peter
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Toennies