THE ROLE OF FRAGMENT ROTATION IN THE FEMTOSECOND DISSOCIATION OF ICN

Semiclassical calculations were carried out on a new set of potential energy surfaces to study the ICN femtosecond dissociation dynamics. In particular, the dissociation times as functions of the CN rotational quantum number J of both the I(P-2(1/2)) and I(P-2(3/2)) channels wer e calculated. Our calculations demonstrate that these classical rotati onally resolved dissociation times are sensitive probes of the dissoci ation dynamics. Based on our calculations, it can be concluded that th e nonadiabatic interactions as well as multisurface excitation are the main reasons for the strong CN rotational dependence of the dissociat ion times, as it was observed by Zewail and co-workers.