Pulsed laser photolysis of dirhenium decacarbonyl at 308 nm

Dirhenium decacarbonyl was photolyzed in the gas phase by excimer laser radiation at 308 nm. The products of the photolysis were probed by the time-resolved UV/VIS emission on the nanosecond time scale. Only the emission from the excited rhenium atoms was observed. The Re(a ⁶D _sol9/2) state was identified as a photoproduct. From the quadratic dependence of the emission signal it follows that a sequential mechanism of the photolysis takes place and an effective saturation occurs in the fluency range 25-170 mJ cm ^t-1. A significant quenching of the Re(z ⁶P ^o_j)states was found. The collisional deexcitation of an excited Re(CO) or Re ₂ species can be responsible for the quenching. The atomic resonance contributes to the population of excited states above the one-photon energy.