Fragments, following photo-dissociation

Figure 38 Experimental CO photo-fragment rotational distributions following the dissociation of H2CO. The two upper traces are for CO(n = 0), while the bottom trace is for CO(n = 1). Reproduced, with permission of the American Institute of Physics, from Ref. 312.

In traps using buffer-gas cooling, photo fragmentation is an established method [15], where it is applied to polyatomic ions [15,16,85,86], In connection with sympathetic cooling of MgH+ molecular ions, two-photon dissociation was demonstrated and the branching ratio of the two possible dissociation channels. Mg - - H+ and Mg" " + H, was investigated [76]. In all of these experiments, pulsed lasers were employed. Photodissociation of HD+ is described in the following section. 

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