Ballistic and dissociative collisions of a rare-gas atom with a halogen molecule

Efficient vibrational excitation and dissociation of halogen molecules have been observed in molecular dynamics simulations of shock-heated rare-gas clusters. We discuss the propensity for such transfers in a single atom-molecule collision and present classical trajectory computational results. Rather large cross sections are reported. It is expected that in a real experiment some of the flux will be diverted to electronic excitation.