Knowledge Bank

The ultraviolet photodissociation of CF produced by resonant (2+1) multiphoton ionization has been studied by measuring ion fragment arrival time profiles in a time-of-flight mass spectrometer. We show how fragment recoil energy distribution and anisotropy can be extracted from these measurements. The energetic and anisotropic $I+$ fragments observed are shown to be the photoproducts from single-photon dissociation of $CF3I+$. The $CF3\mathrm{<mrow\; data-mjx-texclass="ORD">4</mrow>}$ fragments are produced by a combination of statistical dissociation of parent $CF3I+$ and the same ion dissociation process that leads to $I+$. The current understanding of $CF3I+$ cannot explain the predominantly parallel absorption dipole and prompt dissociation observed in these studies. Neutral $CF3I$ has also been photolyzed in the red wing of the A dissociation continuum. $I(2P1/2$) and $I-$ ($\mathrm{<mrow\; data-mjx-texclass="ORD">2</mrow>}P1/2$) translational energies and recoil anisotropies have been determined. Our new results will be discussed in the context of photofragmentation studies at shorter wavelenghts.