TIME-RESOLVED INTENSITY PATTERNS OF PHOTOFRAGMENTS BY LASER SHEET ILLUMINATION AND 2-DIMENSIONAL IMAGING TECHNIQUES

Time-resolved intensity patterns of state-selected photofragments in velocity space can be probed by the laser sheet illumination and two-dimensional imaging techniques. A physical model is developed to correlate the photodissociation dynamics and image patterns from this direct method. Slicing an expanding, spherical shell of state-selected photofragments by the pulsed laser sheet at a displaced position and various delay times relative to the photolysis event, we simulate numerically the resultant image frames in velocity space. To accommodate realistic experimental conditions, intensity patterns which take into account contributions from a Gaussian sphere and an assembly of photolysis centers on an are are presented.