Feasibility of selective reaction control in laser thermochemistry

A new mechanism is proposed for selective laser control of thermochemical reactions. In contrast to “laserchemical” reactions involving excitation or breaking of molecular bonds as a result of resonant buildup, which requires a low probability of the vibrational-translational (VT) relaxation, attention is given to the limiting case of systems in which the translational temperature follows changes of the vibrational temperature. Selective reaction control can then be achieved by creating basically different thermal feedbacks with a controlled feedback factor by a suitable selection of the laser radiation wavelength.