Photodissociation of SO2 clusters

Clusters of SO 2 have been interrogated using pump-probe spectroscopy employing a femtosecond laser system coupled to a reflectron time-of-flight mass spectrometer. Upon excitation of the C state of SO 2 with 397.5 nm light and 399.0 nm light, it was found that the photodissociation of SO 2 clusters involves multiple reaction pathways. A mechanism is proposed where the excited cluster either follows a simple exponential decay corresponding to the dissociation of the excited moiety directly from the C state or, alternatively, the excited cluster first fragments and then the excited molecule proceeds through the dissociation process associated with the C state.