PHOTODISSOCIATION OF BROMINE MOLECULE NEAR 265 NM

The photodissociation of Br-2 has been studied near 265 nm with the tw o dimensional photofragment imaging technique. Speed and angular distr ibutions of state-selected Br(P-2(3/2,1/2)) fragments are obtained fro m analyzing the center-stripe intensity profile, corresponding to the projection of the center slice of a tk ee dimensional velocity distrib ution with cylindrical symmetry. They clearly show the photoexcitation to an upper Omega = 1(u) level and dissociation into the Br(P-2(3/2)) + Br(P-2(1/2)) channel, predominantly. The excited level is assigned to the 1441 (3) Sigma(u)(+)(1(u)) state based on the prediction from the molecular orbital theory and the analogous works on the C band pho todissociation of I-2. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reser ved.