UV photodissociation of the van der Waals dimer (CH3I)2 revisited: pathways giving rise to ionic features.

The CH(3)I A-state-assisted photofragmentation of the (CH(3)I)(2) van der Waals dimer at 248 nm and nearby wavelengths has been revisited experimentally using the time-of-flight mass spectrometry with supersonic and effusive molecular beams and the "velocity map imaging" technique. The processes underlying the appearance of two main (CH(3)I)(2) cluster-specific features in the mass spectra, namely, I(2)(+) and translationally "hot" I(+) ions, have been studied. Translationally hot I(+) ions with an average kinetic energy of 0.