Vibrational branching ratios following two-color excitation of autoionizing n p Rydberg states of H2

Abstract

Two-color resonantly enhanced multiphoton ionization-photoelectron spectroscopy (REMPI-PES) was used to determine vibrational branching ratios following autoionization of the ungerade npσ 1Σ+u and npπ 1Πu Rydberg states of H2. In this two-step experiment, one laser used to excite the two photon transition to the E,F 1Σ+g, v′=E2, J′=1 state, and a second laser was used to access the autoionizing Rydberg states near the H+2X 2Σ+g, v+=2 ionization limit. Electrons corresponding to the formation of H+2X 2Σ+g, v+=0 and 1 were collected and energy analyzed using a magnetic bottle electron spectrometer. In agreement with the well-known propensity rule for vibrational autoionization, the vibrational branching ratios strongly favor the final ionic state that corresponds to the minimum change in vibrational quantum number. In general, the branching ratio into the v+=1 channel is 94%–96%, while that into the v+=0 channel is 4%–6%; however, two major deviations from this trend were observed for Rydberg states that are perturbed by the 3pπ 1Πu, v=9 and 4pσ 1Σ+u, v=7 states. Although these low n/high v interlopers were not observed in the present work (since their ionization efficiency is near zero), interchannel coupling apparently causes their influence to be felt by nearby Rydberg states, resulting in v+=0 branching ratios as high as 18%. A number of additional studies suggested by these initial results are discussed.