Assignment of continuous spectra by photofragment spectroscopy: C state of I2

Photofragment spectroscopy has been used to probe the C state of iodine by determining its symmetry and dissociation products. By crossing a molecular beam with a powerful pulsed laser beam in high vacuum and monitoring the arrival times of the recoiling photofragments with a mass spectrometer detector, the translational energy distribution of the photodis-sociation products is measured. From energy balance the fragment internal energy is then calculated. Our peak indicates that the C state dissociates to one excited and one ground state atom. The symmetry of the transition is determined by rotating the plane of polarization of the laser light and measuring a fragment angular distribution. The transition was found to be 1 ← 0. The results are consistent with Mulliken's assignment of the C state as 1441 $\text{1}{}_{\mathrm{u}}\text{(}{}^3\text{Σ}{}^{\mathrm{+}}\text{)}$, but inconsistent with the earlier assignment of 2332 $\text{0}{}_{\mathrm{u}}{}^{\mathrm{?}}\text{(}{}^3\text{Σ}{}^{\mathrm{+}}\text{)}$ by Mathieson and Rees.