TIME-RESOLVED FOURIER-TRANSFORM INFRARED STUDY OF THE PHOTODISSOCIATION OF 1,1-DIFLUOROETHENE AT 193-NM

We have measured vibrational and rotational population distributions f or the excited HF product of the 193 nm photolysis of CH2CF2. Approxim ately 15% of the available energy is released as vibrational energy of HF, and the estimated nascent HF rotational energy corresponds to abo ut 10% of the total available energy. The relative vibrational populat ions can be fit to a linear surprisal. We have compared the vibrationa l distribution to that observed from this reaction with different amou nts of available energy, and to the HF vibrational distributions produ ced in the dissociation of other fluoroethenes. While results differ a mong the various experiments considered, overall more than the amount of vibrational energy expected statistically is deposited in HF. The r otational population distributions we observe fit both a Boltzmann dis tribution and an information theoretic model corresponding to a nearly statistical energy distribution.