Photoacoustic generation of anisotropic pressure waves through photodissociation of Cl(2).
Photodissociation of diatomic molecules by linearly polarized radiation in general produces an anisotropic distribution of recoiling atomic fragments. When a short burst of radiation dissociates a gas at low pressure, the collective linear momenta of the individual recoiling photofragments add at any point in space to act as a macroscopic pressure wave, the impulse corresponding to which can be detected by a sensitive microphone. We report here detection of anisotropic pressure waves from photodissociation of Cl(2) with 355-nm radiation. The experimental data show the pressure wave to be peaked in a direction perpendicular to the polarization direction of the incident radiation, indicating a predominantly perpendicular transition moment in Cl(2) at this wavelength.
Park
S M
SM
Khan
M I
MI
Diebold
G J
GJ