Repulsive states

A DIET process involves tliree steps (1) an initial electronic excitation, (2) an electronic rearrangement to fonn a repulsive state and (3) emission of a particle from the surface. The first step can be a direct excitation to an antibondmg state, but more frequently it is simply the removal of a bound electron. In the second step, the surface electronic structure rearranges itself to fonn a repulsive state. This rearrangement could be, for example, the decay of a valence band electron to fill a hole created in step (1). The repulsive state must have a sufficiently long lifetime that the products can desorb from the surface before the state decays. Finally, during the emission step, the particle can interact with the surface in ways that perturb its trajectory. 

Fig. 2.—Potential curve for H + H+ or H+ + H (dashed line) and for H-H+ (lower full line). The upper full line corresponds to the nuclear-antisymmetric repulsive state.

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

It is unclear exactly how the two potential surfaces, and hence the interaction regions between them, behave as the parent molecules bend. Our experimental results indicate that the more bent the ozone molecules are as they dissociate the more effectively is the available energy channelled into the OA T, ) fragment vibration. It is possible that as the parent molecules bend, the crossing seams move to a region on the repulsive state that more strongly favors the production of vibrationally excited 02(3 ) fragments. 

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 12, Schematic mechanism for impulsive reaction of thermal energy reaction of K with oriented CF3I. The electron is assumed to be transferred at large distance to the molecule irrespective of orientation. The molecular ion is formed in a repulsive state that promptly dissociates, ejecting the T ion in the direction of the molecular axis, and the K is dragged off by the departing T resulting in backward scattering for heads orientation and forward scattering for tails as observed.

Dissociation at a surface appears to be analogous to dissociation in the gas phase. The impinging electron causes a Franck-Condon transition to an electronic state which subsequently dissociates. This one-dimensional Franck-Condon excitation model is illustrated schematically in Fig. 31. The cross section for the electronic transition is probably comparable to gas phase excitation processes. After excitation the particle, which is now in a repulsive state, begins to move away from the surface. If it has sufficient energy it may escape from the surface. If not the fragments remain adsorbed. Moreover, radiationless de-excitation may occur... 

The potential energy curves of excited electronic states need not have potential energy minima, such as those shown in Fig. 3.6. Thus Fig. 3.7 shows two hypothetical cases of repulsive states where no minima are present. Dissociation occurs immediately following light absorption, giving rise to a spectrum with a structureless continuum. Transition a represents the case where dissociation of the molecule AB produces the atoms A and B in their ground states, and transition b the situation where dissociation produces one of the atoms in an electronically excited state, designated A. ... 

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). 

Since nuclei are often more weakly bound in the excited state than in the ground state, the molecule may be more easily dissociated. If excited to the repulsive state dissociation may occur with unit efficiency (photodissociation). 

Photo-excited SO2 and SO2 clusters have been observed to undergo a number of excited state and ion-state processes. Ion-state studies have, for example, identified the energy threshold of the ion-state oxygen loss channel of the SO2 monomer and dimer [1], Additionally, studies investigating the metastable decay process of SO2 clusters and mixed S02-water clusters have identified the dissociation pathways and the nature of the charged core of these cationic clusters [2]. The dynamics of oxygen loss of SO2 and SO2 clusters following excitation to the C (2 A ) state, which couples to a repulsive state, have also been studied to determine the influence of the cluster environment on the dissociation process [3]. 

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