Photofragmentation of symmetric triatomic molecules: Time dependent picture

A recent time dependent formulation of total photodissociation cross sections is exploited to give a qualitative explanation of line shapes and absorption envelopes for symmetric triatomic (XY2) vacuum uv spectra. Attention is given to the dependence of the cross section on potential surface parameters and on the nature of the initial vibrational wavefunctions. The symmetric triatomic case treated here is illustrative of techniques which can be applied to more complicated, unsymmetric polyatomic situations.