BIMOLECULAR REACTIONS OBSERVED BY FEMTOSECOND DETACHMENT TO ALIGNED TRANSITION-STATES - INELASTIC AND REACTIVE DYNAMICS

With fs radical detachment and kinetic energy-resolved time-of-flight (KETOF) mass spectrometry, we are able to study the transition state d ynamics of the bimolecular reaction CH3I+I, inelastic and reactive cha nnels; the collision complex is coherently formed (1.4 ps) and is long lived (1.7 ps). We also report studies of the dynamics of I-2 formati on. Direct clocking of the CH3I dissociation, hitherto unobserved, giv es 150 fs for the C-I bond breakage time and 0.8 Angstrom for the repu lsion length scale. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.