Photodissociation dynamics of CO2 + hv → CO(X1σ+) + O(1D2) via the 3P1πu state

The vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) photodissociation of CO2 is important to understand the primary photochemical processes of CO2 induced by solar VUV excitation in the Earth's atmosphere. Here, we report a detailed study of vibrational-state-specific photodissociation dynamics of the CO(X-1 sigma(+)) + O(D-1(2)) channel via the 3P(1)pi(u) state by using the time-sliced velocity-mapped ion imaging apparatus combined with the single VUV photoionization detection scheme. By recording the sliced images of the O(D-1(2)) photoproducts formed by VUV photoexcitation of CO2 to the individual vibrational structure of the 3P(1)pi(u) state, both the vibrational state distributions of the counterpart CO(X-1 sigma(+)) photoproducts and the vibrational-state-specific product anisotropy parameters (beta) are determined. The experimental results show that photodissociation of CO2 at 108.22, 107.50, 106.10, and 104.76 nm yields less anisotropic (beta > 0) and inverted distributed CO(X-1 sigma(+), v) photoproducts. The possible dissociation mechanism for the CO(X-1 sigma(+)) + O(D-1(2)) channel may involve the non-adiabatic transition of excited CO2* from the initially prepared state to the 3(1)A & PRIME; state with potential energy barriers. While at 108.82 and 107.35 nm, the vibrational distributions are found to have the population peaked at a low vibrational state, and the anisotropy parameters turn out to be negative. Such variation indicates the possibility of another non-adiabatic dissociation pathway that may involve Coriolis-type coupling to the low-lying dissociative state. These observations show sclear evidence of the influence of the initially vibrational excitations on the photodissociation dynamics of CO2 via the 3P(1)pi(u) state.

Automated summary

The vibrational-state-specific photodissociation dynamics of CO2 is studied in detail, showing the significant influence of vibrational excitations on the photodissociation process.