Near threshold stereo-dynamics of molecular photodissociation: The visible and near ultraviolet photodissociation of H2O2

Abstract Sub-Doppler LIF probing of OH fragments generated from polarised laser photodissociation of H 2 O 2 at wavelengths ranging from 308 to 465 nm, has established contributions from (at least) two single-photon electronic transitions in the very weak continuum absorption lying in this spectral range. The opportunity of studying the photodissociation at energies fairly close to threshold allows the stereo-dynamics to be probed in the long range parts of the repulsive electronically excited potentials, so providing a simple complementary strategy to resonance Raman luminescence and femtosecond kinetic spectroscopy.