A collinear quantal study of vibrational predissociation and prereaction of van der Waals molecules.

It was recently suggested that vibrational excitation of van der Waals molecules could lead to prereaction instead of predissociation. A mechanism for vibrational prereaction based on tunneling of a light atom is proposed and tested. The effect of van der Waals wells on the reactivity of collinear MuD2, ClHBr, and ClHCl systems is studied. We find that vibrational prereaction is sensitive to the ratio of tunneling and vibrationally nonadiabatic interaction. If tunneling dominates, prereaction will take place. This is the case for the ClHBr and ClHCl systems. The interplay between reaction probability and photodissociation cross sections is studied. We conclude that vibrational prereaction will lead to an increase in reaction probability and an increase in the formation of products in photodissociation. This study suggests that vibrational prereaction could be observed at least in principle in light atom transfer systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]