Ring opening dissociation of d(6)-benzene

The photodissociation of jet-cooled d(6)-benzene at 193 nm was studied. Pho tofragment translational energy distributions were measured by multimass io n imaging techniques. In addition to the major channel of D atom eliminatio n from one-photon excitation, elimination of two D atoms and two ring openi ng dissociation channels, C6D6-->CD3+C5D3 and C6D6-->C2D3+C4D3, resulting f rom two-photon dissociation was observed. These ring opening channels were confirmed by the momentum match between the two fragments in each channel. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.