Knowledge Bank

A ground state population depletion grating was used to elucidate the effects of initial nuclear motion on the photodissociation dynamics of chlorine dioxide. The ultraviolet absorption of OCIO occurs via the $A2A2\leftarrow X2B1$ transition, but dissociation of $OCIO\ast$ proceeds on several different excited state surfaces leading to two distinct product channels. Since several excited bending states $(\nu 2)$ are populated at room temperature, a depletion grating can be formed involving these vibrational states by the interference of two degenerate pump beams tuned to transitions which lie below the predissociation threshold. A probe beam was tuned through the dissociation region to record the $A\leftarrow X$ absorption spectra of specific vibrational states.