Vibrational relaxation and dissociation of strongly excited ozone molecules

A theoretical investigation was carried out of the process of thermalization of vibrationally excited ozone. For time intervals corresponding to pt > τ_VV', τ_VT the calculated results were in satisfactory agreement with the experimental data obtained by an interferometric method. A theoretical analysis was made of the kinetics of dissociation of ozone by infrared radiation pulses subject to allowance for multistage excitation and collisional mechanisms of the filling of the upper vibrational levels of ozone. The dependence of the average number of absorbed photons on the density of the infrared radiation energy flux at different pressures of O₃ and of the buffer gas O₂ was determined by an optoacoustic method. The results obtained were used to estimate the q factor of ozone.