Temperature dependence of cross sections for 72P1/2 ↔ 72P3/2 excitation transfer and for quenching in cesium, induced in collisions with H2, N2, CH4, and CD4

The temperature dependence of cross sections for 72P1/2 ↔ 72P3/2 excitation transfer in cesium, as well as the effective quenching of these states, induced in collisions with H2, N2, CH4, and CD4 molecules have been investigated in a series of sensitized fluorescence experiments over a temperature range 390–640 K. The 72P mixing cross sections are of the order of 10−15 cm2 and exceed by at least one order of magnitude similar cross sections for mixing by collisions with Ne, Ar, Kr, and Xe. The large sizes of the mixing cross sections and their variation with temperature are ascribed to a phenomenon of electronic-to-rotational energy transfer.