Two-color vibrationally mediated photodissociation of nitric acid

Two-color vibrationally mediated photodissociation, in which one photon excites an overtone vibration and a second photon of a different wavelength dissociates the highly vibrationally excited molecule prepared by the first photon, is a means of investigating the role of vibrational excitation in photodissociation and of obtaining vibrational overtone excitation spectra. Application of this scheme to nitric acid (HONO₂) involves exciting the third OH stretching overtone vibration (4v_OH), photodissociating the vibrationally excited molecule with 355-nm light, and detecting the OH fragment using laser-induced fluorescence. These measurements show that most of the OH products are vibrationally unexcited and that about a quarter of the available energy goes into relative translation. The vibrational overtone excitation spectrum has congested P-, Q-, and R-branch rotational structure that forms a 50-cm^-1-wide band.