Wavelength-independent ultrafast dynamics and coherent oscillation of a metal-carbon stretch vibration in photodissociation of Cr(CO)6 in the region of 270-345 nm

Abstract In the group-6 metal hexacarbonyls a number of metal-to-ligand charge-transfer (MLCT) and ligand-field (LF or d → d) states can be excited in the near UV. The latter are repulsive. In equilibrium geometry, most of them are higher than the MLCT states. We probed the dynamics of photodissociation of M(CO) 6  → M(CO) 5  + CO (M = Cr; some data also for M = Mo) with improved time resolution (10–40 fs), pumping at different wavelengths (mainly 270–345 nm) and probing by nonresonant photoionization. The initial relaxation (e.g. within 12.5 fs from T 1u excited at 270 nm) is assigned to direct crossing over to the repulsive surface, from where the subsequent dissociation is also remarkably fast (18 fs in this example). That is, there is no detour via the lowest excited singlet state, in contrast to the usual assumption. Also with 318 and 345 nm excitation a direct MLCT → LF relaxation seems to occur before dissociation. The product M(CO) 5 is generated in the S 1 state, also at pump wavelengths (345 nm) with barely sufficient energy. It relaxes to S 0 through a Jahn–Teller induced conical intersection along pseudorotation coordinates, which stimulates a coherent oscillation in S 0 in this vibration. A higher-frequency oscillation, assigned to totally symmetric MC stretch vibrations, is already found in the Franck–Condon region; it persists (with different wavenumbers) also during dissociation and over the subsequent product states. This vibration is transverse to the valley of dissociation, which is barrierless. The wavelength-independent mechanism also implies that there is no triplet contribution (which was previously supposed at long wavelengths) to photochemical dissociation of the hexacarbonyls.