The kinetics of ground-state atomic nitrogen photofragments produced by las
er photodissociation of nitrous oxide have been investigated using two-phot
on LIF. A single 207 nm laser pulse was used for both N2O photolysis and N
atom two-photon LIF. The dependency of the LIF signal with laser power indi
cated that the observed N atom fragment was produced by N2O dissociation vi
a single-photon absorption. Effects of translational energy of the N atom f
ragment were detected in collisional quenching rates of the two-photon exci
ted N atom (3p)S-4 state as observed in the decay lifetime of the induced f
luorescence. The mean translational kinetic energy of the N atom fragment w
as determined to be 0.6 +/- 0.2 eV from the quenching data. An analysis of
the Doppler broadened absorption line shape of the recoiling atomic nitroge
n confirmed the mean kinetic energy and further presented a model speed dis
tribution and anisotropy parameter that was consistent with the line shape
data. The NO translational and internal energies of 0.3 +/- 0.1 eV and 0.2
+/- 0.1 eV, respectively, were also assigned by momentum and energy conserv
ation.