Abstract:
The presence of vibrationally excited oxygen in the active medium of a chemical oxygen – iodine laser is discovered using the emission technique. Using the analysis of the luminescence spectra of oxygen molecules on O2(b1Σg+, v=i)→O2(X3Σg-, v'=i) (i=0, 1, 2) electronic vibrational – rotational transitions, it is shown that ~22 % of O2(b1Σg+) molecules are at the first vibrational level and ~10 % are at the second one. Moreover, due to the fast EE energy exchange, a mean number of vibrational quanta per one molecule in each of the O2(X3Σg-), O2(a1Δg) and O2(b1Σg+) components is approximately the same and amounts to 30 % – 40 %.