Vibrational relaxation of the levels of the B state in I2 excited by 633-nm radiation of a He-Ne laser

We determine the rate constants of vibrational relaxation for vibrational levels of the B state in molecular iodine (v' = 6, 11 for I-127(2) and v' = 6, 8, 12 for I-129(2)) excited by 633-nm radiation of a He-Ne laser. As a buffer, we employed various gases, including He, Ne, N-2, CO2, and H2O. The rate constants are investigated as functions of the mass of the buffer gas, the number of vibrational level of the B state, and the temperature of iodine vapor. We have studied also the dependence of the efficiency of population of vibrational levels in the B state on the ratio of the rate of collisional predissociation to the rate of vibrational relaxation.