Collision-induced absorption in a gaseous mixture of nitrogen and argon

Abstract

The collision-induced absorption spectrum of a nitrogen–argon gas mixture is treated theoretically and the theory is applied to results obtained by us in the spectral region below 360 cm−1 at four temperatures, namely, 126, 149, 179, and 212 K. The measurements have involved the use of Fourier transform infrared and microwave techniques as well as a far-infrared laser system operating at 84.2 and 15.1 cm−1. The theoretical line shape is obtained from a convolution of a free rotation spectrum and a translational component. The spectra calculated from either information theory alone or combined with Mori theory both show good agreement with experimental results, especially above 30 cm−1. An important feature of the theoretical development is that no adjustable parameters need to be introduced.