Unraveling multicomponent images by extended cross correlation analysis.

In the course of studying the reaction dynamics of F + CH(2)D(2) --> HF + CHD(2), several small features in the (2+1) REMPI spectra of the CHD(2) product were observed. Using the technique of imaging spectroscopy, those new features were identified and assigned to the 2(1)(1), 3(1)(1), and 5(1)(1) bands. The ion velocity-mapped images acquired for those features, however, displayed severe overlaps with each other, rendering data analysis difficult. The extended cross correlation method was then applied for the first time in analyzing the ion images and successfully extracted the genuine pattern of each entangled component, which in turn enables us to focus on the dynamics information embedded in the multicomponent images.