STUDY OF THE I.CO2 VANDERWAALS COMPLEX BY THRESHOLD PHOTODETACHMENT SPECTROSCOPY OF I-CO2

Photodetachment of the I-CO2 anion accesses the three lowest-lying electronic states of the I . CO2 van der Waals complex. High-resolution threshold photodetachment (ZEKE) spectroscopy reveals progressions in the low-frequency C-I van der Waals stretch in each electronic state, providing a detailed spectroscopic probe of the interaction between a halogen atom and a closed-shell molecule. From our data, we construct one-dimensional potential-energy functions for each neutral state as well as for the anion, and these are compared to rare-gas-halogen and rare-gas-halide potentials.