Exclusive production of excited-state sulfur (1D) atoms from 193 nm photolysis of thietane

Tunable synchrotron radiation has been used to probe the dissociation dynamics of thietane (C3H6S) at 193 nm, providing selective determination of the translational energy distribution of both excited (D-1) and ground-state (P-3) sulfur atoms, with momentum-matching to the C3H6 co-fragment. The results suggest that the sulfur atom is produced almost exclusively in its excited (D-1) state, with ground-state (P-3) production less than 5%. The first single-photon ionization efficiency (PIE) spectrum for the S(D-1) state with a resolution of 0.2 eV is reported. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.