Collision-induced absorption is the phenomenon in which interactions between colliding molecules lead to absorption of light, even for transitions that are forbidden for the isolated molecules. Collision-induced absorption contributes to the atmospheric heat balance and is important for the electronic excitations of O₂ that are used for remote sensing. Here, we present a theoretical study of five vibronic transitions in O₂−O₂ and O₂−N₂, using analytical models and numerical quantum scattering calculations. We unambiguously identify the underlying absorption mechanism, which is shown to depend explicitly on the collision partner—contrary to textbook knowledge. This explains experimentally observed qualitative differences between O₂−O₂ and O₂−N₂ collisions in the overall intensity, line shape and vibrational dependence of the absorption spectrum. It is shown that these results can be used to discriminate between conflicting experimental data and even to identify unphysical results, thus impacting future experimental studies and atmospheric applications.

碰撞诱导的吸收是一种现象，其中碰撞分子之间的相互作用导致光的吸收，即使对于分离的分子所禁止的跃迁也是如此。碰撞引起的吸收有助于大气热量平衡，对于用于遥感的O ₂的电子激发非常重要。在这里，我们对O ₂ -O ₂和O ₂ -N _2中的五个振动跃迁进行理论研究。，使用分析模型和数值量子散射计算。我们明确地确定了潜在的吸收机制，该吸收机制明确地取决于碰撞对象，这与教科书知识相反。这解释了实验观察到的O ₂ -O ₂和O ₂ -N ₂碰撞之间在吸收强度的总体强度，线形和振动相关性方面的质量差异。结果表明，这些结果可用于区分矛盾的实验数据，甚至识别非物理结果，从而影响未来的实验研究和大气应用。