Dissociation and oscillatory continuum emission

At first sight, one might expect the fluorescence spectrum to be abroad continuum for such transitions  

It is interesting to note that for each peak in the oscillatory continuum (frequency domain) there will be a corresponding pulse of atoms with a well-defined kinetic energy. Thus, the observation of the TOF spectrum of the atoms produced following oscillatory continuum emission provides complementary information, in the time domain. 

It is well known that the number of repulsive molecular states is generally greater than that of bound states, but our knowledge of such states remains rather poor, as it is easier to characterize bound excited states through the analysis of their vibration/rotation structure. Indeed, most of our knowledge of repulsive states, to date, comes from the investigation of predissociation of bound states. However, the information gained in this way is indirect and quite often incomplete. The analysis of oscillatory continua, where available, offers a more direct approach to the characterization of repulsive states. 

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