Eur. Phys. J. D 4, 291-302 (1998)
https://doi.org/10.1007/s100530050212

Photodissociation dynamics of Cl₂ in a xenon cluster

¹ Service des Photons, Atomes et Molécules, CEA Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France
² Service de Recherche sur les Surfaces et l'Irradiation de la Matière, CEA Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France
³ Laboratoire de Photophysique Moléculaire du CNRS, Bâtiment 213, Université Paris-Sud, 91405 Orsay Cedex, France

Received: 17 February 1998
Accepted: 28 July 1998
Published online: 15 December 1998

Abstract

The photodissociation of a chlorine molecule in the environment of a xenon cluster has been studied experimentally using the real time pump and probe technique through the formation of an XeCl reaction product. The photodissociating system is probed in such a way that the movement of a single chlorine atom in the xenon environment is detected. Various Xe_nCl₂ cluster sizes have been investigated leading to the distinction between uncapped, half-capped and doubly capped structures for these clusters. These structures have a profound influence on the photodissociation dynamics. Retrapping of one chlorine atomic fragment and stabilization of the XeCl reaction product is only observed for the half and doubly capped clusters. The experimental work is complemented by classical molecular dynamics calculations to get a full picture of the photodissociation.