State-resolved photodissociation of OCS monomers and clusters

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Abstract
Photodissociation of OCS in the region from 222–248 nm has been investigated by monitoring the CO and S(1D2) primary photoproducts; as well as the secondary production of S(3P2), S(3P1), and S(3P0) using fluorescence induced by a tunable vacuum ultraviolet laser source based on four-wave mixing in magnesium vapor. The quantum yield of S(3P) was found to be 0.00±0.02 at 222 nm. Thus, in contrast to our preliminary report, the present more detailed investigation shows that the sole sulfur product appears to be S(1D). The CO photofragment is produced almost exclusively in v=0 [CO(v=1)/ CO(v=0)≤0.02], but the rotational distribution is inverted and peaked at very high rotational levels. The peak shifts from J=56 for dissociation at 222 nm to J=31 at 248 nm. Doppler profiles of the CO rotational transitions reveal (1) that all observed levels are produced in coincidence with S(1D), (2) that for 222 nm photolysis the fragment recoil anisotropy shifts from a distribution characterized by β=1.9 at J=67 toward one characterized by β=0 near J=54, (3) that the CO velocity vector is aligned nearly perpendicular to its angular momentum vector, and (4) that the CO angular momentum vector is also aligned parallel to that component of the transition dipole which lies perpendicular to the recoil velocity. These results are interpreted in terms of a model for the dissociation in which excitation takes place to two surfaces of A′ and A″ symmetry derived from a bent 1Δ configuration. Dissociation of OCS clusters was also investigated and was found to produce a photochemistry completely different from that of the monomers. Rotationally cold CO as well as S2 in both the X3Σ−g and a1Δg states was observed.