PHOTODISSOCIATION AND PREDISSOCIATION PROCESSES IN OH - A TIME-DEPENDENT QUANTUM-MECHANICAL STUDY

Photodissociation from the ground vibrational and ground electronic st ate (X2PI) and spin-orbit induced predissociation from the A 2SIGMA+ s tate of OH have been studied using the time-dependent quantum mechanic al approach. Photodissociation cross sections computed thus are in acc ord with the time-independent quantal results and are comparable to th e experimental results. Predissociation linewidths (GAMMA) computed us ing the wavepacket golden rule treatment corresponding to upsilon' = 1 -7 of A 2SIGMA+ state are also in agreement with most of the earlier t heoretical results. For upsilon' = 1-3, there is a general agreement b etween experiment and theory but for upsilon' = 4, the difference is s ubstantial. For upsilon' = 5-7, there are no experimental results avai lable. The results obtained from our calculations indicate that the in clusion of R-dependence of the spin-orbit coupling plays an important role in deciding the upsilon' dependence of GAMMA.