Predissociation of Rydberg states of CO investigated by the detection of theC(3PJ) fragment

Carbon atom generation following the predissociation of Rydberg states of CO has been investigated. The Rydberg states of CO were prepared by two-color double resonant excitation through the3sσB1Σ+ state and the atomic carbon fragment was detected by resonance-enhanced multiphoton ionization. The4s–6s(v = 0), 5s(v = 1), 4p(v = 0), 3dπ(v = 0, 1), 5dσ(v = 0), 4f–5f(v = 0) Rydberg states and theW1Π(v = 2, 3) state were observed, and it was confirmed that all the states predissociate to generate the3P carbon atom. The distributions in the spin-orbit sublevels (J) of the3PJ carbon atoms were also investigated.