Student Scholars Day

Potential Energy Surfaces of Oxygen Herzberg States During Collisions With Nitrogen

Henry Hall Atrium 88

Photodissociation of ozone in the upper atmosphere is known to produce oxygen molecules in excited electronic states known as Herzberg states. These electronically excited oxygen molecules are removed through a largely unknown process involving collisions with gaseous nitrogen, probably resulting in oxygen molecules in the ground electronic state with very large amounts of vibrational energy. Investigation into this process is conducted through exploration of the potential energy surfaces of individual oxygen and nitrogen molecules in a variety of configurations. Potential energy surfaces are generated by electronic structure calculations carried out in the MolPro program. Potential energy surfaces constructed from the electronic structure calculations and conclusions about the collision dynamics indicated by these surfaces will be presented.