Two-color visible/vacuum ultraviolet photoelectron imaging dynamics of Br2.

An experimental two-color photoionization dynamics study of laser-excited Br2 molecules is presented, combining pulsed visible laser excitation and tunable vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) synchrotron radiation with photoelectron imaging. The X 1Sigmag + -B 3Pi0+u transition in Br2 is excited at 527 nm corresponding predominantly to excitation of the v' = 28 vibrational level in the B 3Pi0+u state. Tunable VUV undulator radiation in the energy range of 8.40-10.15 eV is subsequently used to ionize the excited molecules to the X 2Pi32,12 state of the ion, and the ionic ground state is probed by photoelectron imaging. Similar experiments are performed using single-photon synchrotron ionization in the photon energy range of 10.75-12.50 eV without any laser excitation. Photoelectron kinetic energy distributions are extracted from the photoelectron images. In the case of two-color photoionization using resonant excitation of the intermediate B 3Pi0+u state, a broad distribution of photoelectron kinetic energies is observed, and in some cases even a bimodal distribution, which depends on the VUV photon energy. In contrast, for single-photon ionization, a single nearly Gaussian-shaped distribution is observed, which shifts to higher energy with photon energy. Simulated spectra based on Franck-Condon factors for the transitions Br2(X 1Sigmag+, v" = 0)-Br2 +(X 2Pi12,32, v+) and Br2(B 3Pi0+u, v' = 28)-Br2 +(X 2Pi12,32, v+) are generated. Comparison of these calculated spectra with the measured images suggests that the differences in the kinetic energy distributions for the two ionization processes reflect the different extensions of the vibrational wave functions in the v" = 0 electronic ground state (X 1Sigmag+) versus the electronically and vibrationally excited state (B 3Pi0+u, v' = 28).