Excited-state absorption of SF6at 936.8 cm-1

An effect that is opposite to saturable absorption in the infrared was observed when a CO
2
laser beam was passed through SF
6
. An increase of absorption occurred when the radiant flux of the laser was increased to 10 W/cm
²
. The effect was observed for the P(28) line of the
00\deg1-10\deg0
band of the CO
2
laser, and was attributed to absorption from excited vibrational states of SF
6
.