Rotational population distributions of O2(X 3Σg−, v″=9, 12, and 15) following ozone photolysis at 248 nm

Vibrationally excited O2(X 3Σg−, v″=9, 12, and 15) produced from the 248 nm photolysis of O3 was probed using laser-induced fluorescence of the (0,v″) Schumann–Runge bands of O2(B 3Σu−←X 3Σg−). The nascent rotational distributions are all sharply peaked at 15% of the available kinetic energy. Comparison to statistical and impulsive models of photodissociation suggests that the energy release is largely impulsive. However, while the impulsive model accurately predicts the rotational energy distributions of O2(X 3Σg−), it does not simultaneously match previously published photoproduct angular distributions.