State-to-state photochemical reaction dynamics in polyatomic molecules

Abstract

The generalized Franck–Condon theory of the dissociation of linear triatomic molecules is presented, including proper descriptions of the bending and rotational motions on the bound and unbound electronic potential energy surfaces. The role of angular momentum conservation is made explicit through analytical expressions for rotational and orbital angular momentum distributions of the photofragments. The theory is also applied to the calculation of photofragment angular distributions and preliminary results are described.