Abstract

In recent years, there has been great progress in optogalvanic spectroscopy.¹ However, the mechanisms are well understood only for the visible light optogalvanic effect (OGE) in a few kinds of rare gas, and the change of sign of the visible OGE in Ne and Ar has been previously observed. The work of Pepper, Smyth, Keller, and Lawler provides a significant step for understanding the OGE mechanism in this case. Unfortunately, there has been little work done on the IR-OGE. The IR-OGE phenomena are difficult to explain by means of the visible OGE model; e.g., the IR-OGE in CO₂ has been explained by gas “heating or cooling.”

© 1983 Optical Society of America