ENERGY PARTITIONING FOLLOWING THE INFRARED PHOTOFRAGMENTATION OF SF6-CENTER-DOT(C6H6)(+) CLUSTER IONS

Kinetic energy release measurements have been performed following the metastable and infrared photoinduced decay of SF6 .(C6H6)(n)(+) cluste r ions. Using a model due to Klots [J. Chem. Phys. 58 (1973) 5364], ph otofragment kinetic energy releases have been predicted on the assumpt ion that energy from the photon (similar to 950 cm(-1) deposited into the nu(3) of the SF6 moiety) is partitioned statistically throughout t he cluster ion. However, a comparison between experimental and calcula ted results suggests that incomplete energy randomisation may be takin g place, and a better description of the photofragmentation process is provided on the assumption that the excited vibrational mode undergoe s partial relaxation to either the nu(2) or nu(4) modes. The energy di fference (similar to 300 cm(-1)) is then randomised and is reflected i n the magnitudes of the measured kinetic energy releases. (C) 1998 Els evier Science B.V.