266 NM PHOTOLYSIS OF HOCL AND DOCL - LASER-EXCITATION FLUORESCENCE DETECTION OF OH AND OD

Fragment rotational population distributions for OH and OD were observ ed by laser-excitation fluorescence following the 266 nm photolysis in a free jet molecular beam of HOCl and DOCl, respectively. The photodi ssociation dynamics show a strong preference for the 2PI(A') OH or OD lambda doublet component in both spin-orbit states. The 2PI3/2 state i s more populated than the 2PI1/2 State of OH. The distributions are co nsistent with photolysis via a repulsive excited state and the measure d rotational alignment (-0.28) is compatible with an excited-state sym metry of A' for the dominant dissociation pathway. The high-J limiting value for the degree of electron alignment reaches the extreme value of - 1 for the 2PI1/2 state for both OH and OD, but falls short of thi s for the 2PI3/2 state, reaching only -0.7.