Photodissociation of nitrous oxide cation

Abstract

The cross sections for photodissociation of N₂O⁺ were obtained by ion cyclotron resonance techniques for wavelengths ranging from 220 to 700 nm. The cross section curve for this region showed two peaks, one with a maximum occurring at 340 nm (3.65 eV) having a cross section value of 4.9×10⁻¹⁹ cm² and the second with a maximum occurring at 240 nm (5.16 eV) having a cross section value of 6.5×10⁻¹⁸ cm². The peaks are attributed to dissoication from the ? ²Σ⁺ excited state and the ? ²Π excited state of the ion, respectively. Dissociation from the ? ²Σ⁺ state was found to yield only one product ion, NO⁺. For the ? ²Π state the main dissociative product was found to be NO⁺. The formation of N₂⁺ from this state is apparently an alternative channel, but could not be demonstrated unambiguously. The photodissociation results were found to be consistent with previous studies by photoionization and photoelectron spectroscopy of the dissociative processes from these excited doublet states.