Efficiency of passage of highly vibrationally excited CF3I molecules in a beam through a cooled converging hollow truncated cone

The passage of CF₃I molecules excited by high-intensity IR laser radiation to high vibrational states (with energy E_v ≥ 0.3–1.5 eV) and unexcited molecules in a pulsed beam through a converging truncated hollow metal cone cooled to T_s ≈ 80–85 K and mounted at an angle to the beam axis is studied. It is found that the excited molecules pass much more readily through the cone than the unexcited (vibrationally cold) molecules. This opens the possibility for studying the processes of energy transfer and redistribution over a cold surface covered by molecular (cluster) layers, and for separating excited and unexcited molecules in a beam.