Photoinduced Rydberg ionization spectroscopy of phenylacetylene: vibrational assignments of the C state of the cation

The photoinduced Rydberg ionization spectrum of the third excited electronic state of phenylacetylene cation was recorded via the origin of the cation ground electronic state. The origin of this state is 17 834 cm(-1) above the ground state of the cation, and the spectrum shows well-resolved vibrational features to the energy of 2200 cm(-1) above this. An assignment of the vibrational structure was made by comparison to calculated frequencies and Franck-Condon factors. From the assignments, and electronic structure considerations, the electronic symmetry of the C state is established to be (2)B(1).