Photodissociation of HCO Radical via \tilde \mathbfA ²\mathbfA'' State: Accurate Determination of Bond Dissociation Energy D₀(H–CO)^†

The photodissociation dynamics of jet-cooled HCO radical was investigated in the region of 490 nm to 715 nm using the H-atom high-n Rydberg time-of-flight (HRTOF) technique. The CO product rovibrational state populations are well resolved in the H+CO product translational energy distributions, and an accurate H–C bond dissociation energy D₀(H–CO) = 5086 ± 5 cm⁻¹ is obtained.