Photodissociation of ozone at 193 nm by high-resolution photofragment translational spectroscopy

The photodissociation of ozone has been studied at 193 nm using high resolution photofragment translational spectroscopy. The results show six distinct peaks in the time-of-flight spectra for the O2 product and its momentum-matched O atom counterpart. The translational energy distributions determined from the time-of-flight spectra reveal the production of a range of electronic states of the photofragments. The product electronic states were identified based on the translational energy distributions, with the aid of state-resolved imaging experiments by Houston and co-workers. The results reveal the production of a substantial yield of highly excited triplet states of O2, recently suggested to play an important role in the stratospheric ozone balance. In addition, peaks corresponding to O2(a 1Δg) and O2(b 1Σg+) were observed, the latter confirming a previous report [A. A. Turnipseed et al., J. Chem. Phys. 95, 3244 (1991)]. Evidence was seen for a small contribution from the triple dissociation O3→3O(3P), and insight into the dissociation dynamics for this process was inferred from the translational energy distributions. Branching fractions and angular distributions were measured for all channels. The latter were found in general to yield negative β parameters, in contrast to what is seen at longer wavelengths.