Quantum corrections to classical photodissociation models

An unconventional time dependent formula for total photodissociation cross sections shows the importance of short time dynamics in direct photofragmentation. This is exploited to provide a systematic expansion in powers of h/ for the cross section. The lowest order term is a classical cross section which is shown to be an improvement upon the venerable reflection approximation. Terms to higher order in h/ lead to even greater improvements in accuracy as shown by simple numerical examples. Our formulas are directly applicable to polyatomic photofragmentation, and as a spinoff we derive the polyatomic generalization of the (diatomic) reflection method.