FD06		10min9:55

C. R. BUCHER, B. M. HARVEY AND K. K. LEHMANN, Department of Chemistry, Princeton University, Princeton N. J. 08544.

Recently, the dissociation mechanism of HCN by vibrationally mediated photodissociation has been examined. Exciting the C-H stretch with four quanta and photodissociating the molecule with 220 nm light generates CN in the first excited electronic A ² state rather than the ground X ²⁺ state. The CN fragment is detected by probing the B ²⁺ <- A ² (1-0) band and monitoring the laser induced fluorescence (LIF) via the B ²⁺ -> X ²⁺ (1-1) transition. Progress on the analysis of the LIF spectrum and the nascent product distribution will be presented.