Neutral photodissociation of O-2 Rydberg states accompanied by changes of the Rydberg electron's quantum numbers n and 1

The neutral dissociation (ND) behavior of the Rydberg states converging to the c(4)Sigma(u)(-); state in O-2(+) was investigated using photon-induced fluorescence spectroscopy (PIFS). It was found that the dissociation of Ryd berg states nd sigma(g)(3)Sigma(u)(-) with upsilon = 1 and ns sigma(g)(3)Si gma(u)(-); with upsilon = 0/1 leads, in the observed fluorescence wavelengt h region from 90 to 105 nm, mainly to an excited OI fragment either in the (S-4 degrees)(n + 1)/ns(3)S degrees state or (S-4 degrees)n/(n - 1)d(3)D de grees state for the nd sigma(g) and ns sigma(g) molecular Rydberg states, r espectively. The observed change of n corresponds to the conservation of th e effective quantum number n *. (C) 2000. Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.