A semiclassical dynamics simulation study is reported for the ring opening reaction of 1,3-cyclohexadiene (CHD) triggered by a femtosecond-scale laser pulse. The results clearly demonstrate that, following the excitation by the laser pulse, the ring opening occurs at similar to 110 fs and the molecule decays to the ground electronic state at similar to 210 fs due to non-adiabatic transition of electrons from LUMO to HOMO orbitals. Isomerization of the product of the ring opening reaction, 1,3,5-hexatriene (HT), to various stable isomers are also well demonstrated by the simulations. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.