Photodissociation of solid oxygen with tunable ultraviolet laser light: ozone production monitored via Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy

Laser irradiation of solid oxygen with monochromatic ultraviolet light (210–250 nm) generates specifically oriented ozone species. Previously unobserved absorption features, tentatively assigned to ozone dimers, are detected with Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy near the two features attributed to a single isolated ozone and to an O…O3 complex in each of the ν1, ν2, ν3, and ν1 + ν3 regions. Decreasing the wavelength from 250 to 210 nm increases the achievable concentration of the ozone species by more than a factor of 50, and increases the ratio of the dimer to monomer absorptions.