ROTATIONAL STATE DISTRIBUTION OF HCL FORMED IN THE INFRARED MULTIPHOTON DISSOCIATION OF TRICHLOROETHENE

The rotational state distributions of HCl(upsilon=0 and 1) formed in t he infrared multiphoton dissociation of trichloroethene have been meas ured by employing the (2+1) resonantly enhanced multiphoton ionization technique combined with time-of-flight mass spectrometry. The distrib utions could be well reproduced by Boltzmann distributions, The rotati onal temperatures were determined to be 910+/-100 and 490+/-160 K for upsilon=0 and 1, respectively. The rotational distribution of HCl(upsi lon=0) produced by a probe laser was also obtained. The energy disposa l to the product HCl has been discussed on the basis of two eliminatio n processes, three- and four-center ones.