Picosecond Laser Study of the Collisionless UV Photodissociation of Energetic Materials

It is of interest to establish the pathways and mechanisms for the UV photodecomposition of nitrocompounds in order to cast new light on the physical and chemical processes occurring in the thermal decomposition of energetic materials. We report a picosecond pump-probe study of the collision-free dissociation of gaseous energetic materials after photoexcitation by picosecond laser pulses at 266 nm. Model compounds under study are nitroalkanes (RNO2) and dimethylnitramine (DMNA) in the gaseous phase.