Photodissociation of hydrogen chloride at 157 and 193 nm: Angular distributions of hydrogen atoms and fine-structure branching ratios of chlorine atoms in the 2P j levels

Abstract

The H, D, and Cl atoms from the photodissociation of HCl and DCl at 157 and 193 nm were detected by laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) in the vacuum ultraviolet region. The Doppler profiles of the H and D resonance lines at 121.6 nm in the LIF spectra indicate that the absorption of HCl and DCl at 157 nm is a mixture of perpendicular and parallel transition (A 1Π, a 3Π0+←X 1Σ+), while that at 193 nm results almost solely from the A 1Π←X 1Σ+ transition. The fine-structure branching ratios, are measured for the chlorine atom by LIF. Combined with the previous results, the branching ratios [Cl*(2P1/2)]/[Cl(2P3/2)] are 0.81±0.09 at 157 nm, 0.50±0.05 at 193 nm for HCl, and 0.23±0.05 at 193 nm for DCl. These results suggest that the nonadiabatic couplings during the breakup of HCl (DCl) in the excited states play an important role in determination of the fine-structure branching ratios.