Imaging Photodissociation Dynamics of MgO at 193 nm

In this work, we used time-sliced ion velocity imaging to study the photodissociation dynamics of MgO at \mbox{193 nm}. Three dissociation pathways are found through the speed and angular distributions of magnesium. One pathway is the one-photon excitation of MgO(X\begin{document}$^1\Sigma^+$\end{document}) to MgO(G\begin{document}$^1\Pi$\end{document}) followed by spin-orbit coupling between the G\begin{document}$^1\Pi$\end{document}, 3\begin{document}$^3\Pi$\end{document} and 1\begin{document}$^5\Pi$\end{document} states, and finally dissociated to the Mg(\begin{document}$^3$\end{document}P\begin{document}$_\textrm{u}$\end{document})+O(\begin{document}$^3$\end{document}P\begin{document}$_\textrm{g}$\end{document}) along the 1\begin{document}$^5\Pi$\end{document} surface. The other two pathways are one-photon absorption of MgO(A\begin{document}$^1\Pi$\end{document}) state to MgO(G\begin{document}$^1\Pi$\end{document}) and MgO(4\begin{document}$^1\Pi$\end{document}) state to dissociate into Mg(\begin{document}$^3$\end{document}P\begin{document}$_\textrm{u}$\end{document})+O(\begin{document}$^3$\end{document}P\begin{document}$_\textrm{g}$\end{document}) and Mg(\begin{document}$^1$\end{document}S\begin{document}$_\textrm{g}$\end{document})+O(\begin{document}$^1$\end{document}S\begin{document}$_\textrm{g}$\end{document}), respectively. The anisotropy parameters of the dissociation pathways are related to the lifetime of the vibrational energy levels and the coupling of rotational and vibronic spin-orbit states. The total kinetic energy analysis gives \begin{document}$D_0$\end{document}(Mg\begin{document}$-$\end{document}O)=21645\begin{document}$\pm$\end{document}50 cm\begin{document}$^{-1}$\end{document}.