Vibronic amplification of angular momentum in photodissociation: Application to the case of ICN

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Abstract
Hasselbrink, Waldeck, and Zare reported the observation of a strong orientation of the CN fragment produced by photodissociation of ICN molecules with circularly polarized light at 248 nm. We present in this paper a theory of this effect: A vibronic effect creates a coherent motion of the CN fragment and amplifies the photon angular momentum in order to produce a strong CN orientation. This effect is general and should open a new way towards laser control of reactive processes.