PHOTOLYSIS OF ICL CAUSES MASS-DEPENDENT INTERFERENCE IN THE CL(P-2(3 2)) PHOTOFRAGMENT ANGULAR-MOMENTUM DISTRIBUTIONS/

We have studied the photodissociation of ICl using linearly polarized light at 532 nm. This wavelength excites several electronic states. Us ing linearly polarized probe light, we have measured the angular momen tum distributions of the Cl-35(P-2(3/2)) and Cl-37(P-2(3/2)) photofrag ments, which are found to differ significantly. These distributions ar e expressed in a multipole moment expansion having four terms. These t erms can be classified as incoherent contributions from parallel and p erpendicular transitions, and coherent contributions from interference that arises from these interacting states. Analysis of these angular momentum distributions using this formalism shows that the incoherent contributions from the dissociating surfaces are mass independent, whe reas the coherent contributions are mass dependent. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-9606(98)03720-9]