N(²D) Product Velocity Mapped Imaging in the VUV Photolysis of Nitrous Oxide at 118.2 nm

Resonance-enhanced multiphoton ionization with time-of-flight product imaging of the $N(^2D)$ atoms has been used to study the $N_2O$ photodissociation at 118.2 nm and the two-photon dissociation at 268.9 nm. These imaging experiments allowed the determination of the total kinetic energy distribution of the $NO(X^2{\prod})$ and $N(^2D_{5/2})$ products. The $NO(X^2{\prod})$ fragments resulting from the photodissociation processes are produced in highly vibrationally excited states. The two-photon photodissociation process yields a broad $NO(X^2{\prod})$ vibrational energy distribution, while the 118.2 nm dissociation appears to produce a vibrational distribution sharply peaked at $NO(X^2{\prod},\;{\nu}=14)$.