Periodic orbits and diffuse structures in the photodissociation of symmetric triatomic molecules

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Abstract
We reinvestigate the collinear photodissociation of a symmetric triatomic molecule studied a decade ago by Kulander and Light [J. Chem. Phys. 7 3, 4437 (1980)], within the time‐dependent formalism. The diffuse structures in the absorptionspectrum are uniquely related to three, well separated recurrences which, in turn, are explained by three generic periodic orbits of the corresponding classical Hamiltonian. One of these orbits describes pure symmetric stretch motion while the other two orbits combine symmetric stretch and hyperspherical motion. The applicability of simple one‐dimensional, zeroth‐order pictures is reviewed in the light of these new results.