Complete measurement of S((1)D2) photofragment alignment from Abel-invertible ion images

A novel method to measure directly the photofragment alignment from Abel-invertible two-dimensional ion images, as a function of photofragment recoil velocity, is demonstrated for S(1D2) atoms from the photodissociation of carbonyl sulfide at 223 nm. The results are analyzed in terms of coherent and incoherent contributions from two dissociative states, showing that the phase differences of the asymptotic wave functions of the fast and slow recoil-velocity channel are approximately pi/2 and 0, respectively.