Quantum and semiclassical studies of nonadiabatic electronic transitions between N( 4 S) and N( 2 D) by collisions with N 2 .

The dynamics and kinetics of spin-forbidden transitions between N( 2 D) and N( 4 S) via collisions with N 2 molecules are investigated using a quantum wave packet (WP) method and the semi-classical coherent switches with decay of mixing (CSDM) method. These electronic transition processes are competing with exchange reaction channels on both the doublet and quartet potential energy surfaces. The WP and CSDM quenching rate coefficients are found in reasonable agreement with each other, and both reproduce the previous theoretical results. For the excitation process, the agreement between the two approaches is dependent on the treatment of the zero-point energy (ZPE) in the product, because the high endoergicity of this process leads to severe violation of the vibrational ZPE. The Gaussian-binning (GB) method is found to improve the agreement with the quantum result. The excitation rate coefficients are found to be two orders of magnitude smaller than that of the adiabatic exchange reaction, underscoring the inefficient intersystem crossing due to the weak spin-orbit coupling between the two spin manifolds of the N 3 system.