Predissociative potentials

Molecular dynamics studies of diatomic model detonations were first carried out by Karo and Hardy in 1977 [14]. They were soon followed by other groups [15, 16]. These early studies employed predissociative potentials, in which the reactant dimer molecules are metastable and can dissociate exothermically. More realistic models, combining an endothermic dissociation of reactants with an exothermic formation of product molecules, were introduced by White and colleagues at the Naval Research Laboratory and U.S. Naval Academy, first using a LEPS (London-Eyring-Polanyi-Sato) three-body potential for nitric oxide [17], and later a Tersoff-type bond-order potential [18] for a generic AB model, loosely based on NO [19, 20]. 

In general the bound (predissociated) potential curve is much better characterized experimentally than the repulsive (predissociating) curve. Predissociation linewidths and shifts are usually the best available experimental informal tion about the repulsive state. Indeed, as for bound bound interactions, the vibrational variation of the overlap factor is related to the relative locations of the nodes of the bound and continuum vibrational wavefunctions near Rq (the point of stationary phase of the product x jXe, j, which is where x jXe>,j oscillates most slowly). The Xv,J and Xe,j functions are solutions of the following nuclear Schrodinger equations expressed in atomic units ... 

The occurrence of predissociation opens up a new family of observable quantities. It is possible to measure not only linewidths or lifetimes, but also the internal state distributions of the fragments. All these quantities are sensitive to the intennolecular potential and can be used to test or refine proposed potential surfaces. 

Needless to say, tunneling is one of the most famous quantum mechanical effects. Theory of multidimensional tunneling, however, has not yet been completed. As is well known, in chemical dynamics there are the following three kinds of problems (1) energy splitting due to tunneling in symmetric double-well potential, (2) predissociation of metastable state through... 

Figure 12. Potential energy contour plots for He + I Cl(B,v = 3) and the corresponding probability densities for the n = 0, 2, and 4 intermolecular vibrational levels, (a), (c), and (e) plotted as a function of intermolecular angle, 0 and distance, R. Modified with permission from Ref. 40. The I Cl(B,v = 2/) rotational product state distributions measured following excitation to n = 0, 2, and 4 within the He + I Cl(B,v = 3) potential are plotted as black squares in (b), (d), and (f), respectively. The populations are normalized so that their sum is unity. The l Cl(B,v = 2/) rotational product state distributions calculated by Gray and Wozny [101] for the vibrational predissociation of He I Cl(B,v = 3,n = 0,/ = 0) complexes are shown as open circles in panel (b). Modified with permission from Ref. [51].

Figure 7. Potential energy diagram for HI, showing the two lowest ionization states (2n3//2 and 2 IT j, ) coupled to a neutral dissociative continuum (3Ao) at the three-photon (3

Hydroxyl radical (OH) is a key reactive intermediate in combustion and atmospheric chemistry, and it also serves as a prototypic open-shell diatomic system for investigating photodissociation involving multiple potential energy curves and nonadiabatic interactions. Previous theoretical and experimental studies have focused on electronic structures and spectroscopy of OH, especially the A2T,+-X2n band system and the predissociation of rovibrational levels of the M2S+ state,84-93 while there was no experimental work on the photodissociation dynamics to characterize the atomic products. The M2S+ state [asymptotically correlating with the excited-state products 0(1 D) + H(2S)] crosses with three repulsive states [4>J, 2E-, and 4n, correlating with the ground-state fragments 0(3Pj) + H(2S)[ in... 

FIGURE 3.8 Potential energy curves for the ground state and two electronically excited states in a hypothetical diatomic molecule. Predissociation may occur when the molecule is excited into higher vibrational levels of the state E and crosses over to repulsive state R at the point C (from Okabe, 1978). 

The simulations demonstrated, that after the pump excitation of the iodine molecules into their B state three elementary dynamical processes determine the further reaction course (i) the predissociation of the iodine molecules caused by the coupling of the electronic B state to the repulsive ajo states, (ii) the electronic transitions from these states to the A, A, and X states due to the caging effect, and (iii) the vibrational relaxation in all electronic states involved in the reaction. Additionally, an energy shift of the potential curves due to the influence of the crystalline DDR cage could be observed. 

Besides a transition to a continuum level of an excited electronic state, dissociation can occur by another mechanism in electronic absorption spectroscopy. If the potential-energy curve of an excited electronic state A that has a minimum in UA(R) happens to be intersected by the U(R) curve of an unstable excited state B with no minimum in U, then a vibrational level of A whose energy lies near the point of intersection of UA and UB has a substantial probability to make a radiationless transition to state B, which then dissociates. This phenomenon is called predissociation. Predissociation shortens the lifetimes of those vibrational levels of A that are involved, and therefore by the uncertainty principle gives broad vibrational bands with rotational fine structure washed out. 

Figure 9. Femtosecond dynamics of an elementary reaction (I2 — 21) in solvent (Ar) cages. The study was made in clusters for two types of excitation to the dissociative A state and to the predissociative B state. The potentials in the gas phase govern a much different time scale for bond breakage (femtosecond for A state and picosecond for B state). Based on the experimental transients, three snapshots of the dynamics are shown with the help of molecular dynamics simulations at the top. The bond breakage time, relative to solvent rearrangement, plays a crucial role in the subsequent recombination (caging) dynamics. Experimental transients for the A and B states and molecular dynamics simulations are shown.

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