A paper, written by DICP scientists Yuan Cheng, Kaijun Yuan, Xueming Yang et al. and published in the Journal of Chemical Physics last year, has been picked up as one of the papers in “Editor’s Choice for 2011” of the magazine (http://jcp.aip.org/editors_choices_2011). The title of the paper was “Photodissociation dynamics of H2O: Effect of unstable resonances on the titldeB1A1 electronic state”. Starting from 2009, JCP published a special edition each year for excellent papers of the year chosen by the editor. In the present edition, only eight papers from the field of gas phase dynamics were selected.

This DICP paper reported on the research work done by employing the technique of high-resolution H-atom Rydberg tagging with a proprietary tunable vacuum UV source in the studying of high resolution dynamics of a series of unstable resonances in the B electronic state of the water molecule. The results reflected not only the effect of unstable resonance states on the electronic ground state as well as the excited states of the dissociation product OH, but also reflected the influence of the rotational excitation of the parent water molecule on the dissociation dynamics. The DICP scientists were able to provide for the first time a fully quantum-state-resolved dynamical picture of H2O photodissociation, which illustrated a synergistic influence of the ground state rotational excitation and excited state vibrational excitation on the dissociation process, and rendered a good experimental foundation for the studying of conical cross dynamics of the potential surface of the water molecule.