Mapping of parent transition-state wave functions into product rotations: An experimental and theoretical investigation of the photodissociation of FNO.

We study experimentally and theoretically reflection-type structures in the rotational distributions of NO following the photodissociation of FNO via excitation of the S1 state. Exciting quasibound states with zero quanta of bending vibration in the FNO(S1) state yields Gaussian-type rotational distributions, while excitation of states with one bending quantum leads to bimodal distributions. In the latter case, the ratio of the two intensity maxima depends on the number of NO stretching quanta in the S1 state. The accompanying calculations employing a three-dimensional ab initio potential energy surface for the S1 state of FNO are performed in the time-dependent wave packet approach. They reproduce the main features of the experimental distributions, especially the bimodality. The analysis of two-dimensional calculations for a frozen NO bond distance shows that the final rotational state distributions can be explained as the result of a dynamical mapping of the stationary wave function on the transition line onto the fragment rotational quantum number axis. Here the transition line is defined as the line which separates the inner part of the FNO(S1) potential energy surface from the strongly repulsive F+NO product channel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]