Change in the thermal dissociation channel of molecules subjected to a high-intensity infrared radiation field

An analysis is made of the possibility of controlling chemical reactions by a mechanism (recently suggested by the present authors) of resonant excitation of strongly anharmonic molecular modes by automatic phase locking in an external harmonic infrared field. It is shown that in the temperature range 500–1000 °K when the infrared radiation power density is 1–10 kW/cm² the energy distribution function of two anharmonic molecular modes interacting with one another and with the field may sometimes change near the dissociation limit to such a degree that thermal dissociation results mainly in breaking of strong bonds. The dependences of the excitation intensity on the infrared radiation power density, external field frequency, and temperature are given.