The use of time-sliced velocity map imaging of atomic hydrogen fragments to study photodissociation and isomerization dynamics in free radicals will be described.  Specifically, predissociation and isomerization pathways of the hydroxymethyl radical on the ground potential energy surface have been studied experimentally and modeled theoretically to determine the importance of the isomerization channel and elucidate the dynamics of direct O-H bond fission and isomerization to methoxy.  Photodissociation via excited Rydberg states accesses the ground state via several conical intersections, whose influence on the dynamics will be described.  In addition, breaking the C-H bond in the hydroxymethyl radical provides an efficient way of generating the hydroxymethylene diradical HCOH, and mechanisms leading to formation of its trans- and cis- isomers will be discussed.This research has been funded by the Department of Energy, Basic Energy Sciences.

Imaging photodissociation and isomerization pathways in free radicals

245th National Meeting (2013)

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