Production of excited atomic hydrogen and deuterium from H₂ and D₂ photodissociation

Authors

J. D. Bozek, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA
J. E. Furst, University of Newcastle-Ourimbah, Ourimbah, NSW 2258, Australia
Timothy J. Gay, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow
H. Gould, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA
A. L. D. Kilcoyne, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA
J. R. Machacek, University of Nebraska - LIncoln
F. Martin, Departamento de Química, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 28049 Madrid, Spain
K. W. McLaughlin, Loras College, Dubuque, IA
J. L. Sanz-Vicario, Instituto de Física, Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia

Date of this Version

November 2006

Comments

Published in Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics 39 (2006), pp. 4871– 4882. Copyright © 2006 IOP Publishing Ltd. Used by permission. Online at http://stacks.iop.org/JPhysB/39/4871

Abstract

We have measured the production of both Lyα and Hα fluorescence from atomic H and D for the photodissociation of H₂ and D₂ by linearly polarized photons with energies between 24 and 60 eV. In this energy range, excited photofragments result primarily from the production of doubly excited molecular species which promptly autoionize or dissociate into two neutrals. Our data are compared with ab initio calculations of the dissociation process, in which both doubly excited state production and prompt ionization (non resonant) channels are considered. Agreement between our experimental data and that of earlier work, and with our theoretical calculations, is qualitative at best.