LASER PHOTODISSOCIATION OF FLUORINATED MOLECULAR DICATIONS

The results of experiments are reported to identify the ionic photopro ducts produced by the interaction of gaseous dications, CF32+, SF42+, SF32+, SF22+, and SF2+, with tunable pulsed laser radiation in the vis ible and at the fixed wavelengths of 355, 532, and 1064 nm, The experi ments show that CF32+, SF32+, SF22+ and SF2+ readily absorb visible li ght and are promoted to excited states which dissociate by both neutra l-loss and charge separation. Detailed studies of CF32+ show that the dissociation occurs by single-photon absorption which promotes the mol ecule to unbound excited states. Excitation thresholds for the photoin duced neutral-loss and charge separation reactions of SF2+ and SF32+ a re apparent from the data. A qualitative interpretation of the competi tion between the neutral loss and charge separation processes is discu ssed in terms of a simple model of the potential energy surfaces.