Classical dynamics of intramolecular energy flow and overtone-induced dissociation in HO2H and HO2D

Abstract

A detailed classical trajectory study of the overtone-induced dissociation of hydrogen peroxide HO2H and its isotopic variant HO2D is presented. The factors affecting intramolecular energy flow, such as nonlinear resonances and the various couplings, are examined in detail. The dissociation lifetimes are found to be on the order of picoseconds and comparable with statistical lifetimes, although the intramolecular energy redistribution is not complete within the lifetime of the molecules. Lifetime broadening contributes very little to the rather large width of the overtone excitation feature, which we conclude is in the main inhomogeneously broadened by rotational structure instead. The implications of our results are discussed.