"Photofragment Imaging Studies of Ozone Photodissociation: Implications for the Stratosphere"

Presented by Prof. Paul Houston, Cornell University.

Multichannel detection of ions produced by resonant laser excitation has made it possible to obtain an image of the velocity distribution of state- selected reaction products. The talk will discuss this new technique with examples of images from the crossed molecular beam collision of Ar with NO and from the photodissociation of ozone. In the latter case, an unexpected dissociation channel has been discovered that provides at least a partial explanation of the "ozone deficit," the disagreement between calculated and measured ozone concentrations in the stratosphere.