DYNAMICS OF THRESHOLD PHOTO-ION PAIR PRODUCTION IN SMALL MOLECULES

Author Institution: University of British ColumbiaIt has already been demonstrated that the method of threshold ion-pair production spectroscopy (TIPPS) can be used to probe the energetics of molecular dissociation with spectroscopic accuracy. Since TIPPS produces a spectrum which measures energy differences between the starting neutral molecule states and the states of the ion-pair dissociation products, it can also be used to determine the spectroscopy of the ion fragments, and the dynamics of the ion-pair dissociation. The results of TIPPS experiments on the following dissociations will be used to illustrate these features of TIPPS: $H_{2}S + h\nu \rightarrow H^{+} + SH^{-} H_{2}S + h\nu \rightarrow H^{-} + SH^{+} HCN + h\nu \rightarrow H^{+} + CN^{-}$ Our results on these systems indicate that, as with neutral photodissociation, an initial state of the neutral can be coupled to a wide range of product states, meaning that the spectroscopy of highly excited ions can be studied by TIPPS