Photon-induced dissociation pathways of thymine are investigated with vacuum ultraviolet photoionization mass spectrometry and theoretical calculations. The photoionization mass spectra of thymine at different photon energy are measured and presented. By selecting suitable photon energy, exclusively molecular ion m/z=126 is obtained. At photon energy of 12.0 eV, the major ionic fragments at m/z=98, 97, 84, 83, 70, and 55 are obtained, which are assigned to C4H6N2O＋, C4H5N2O＋, C3H4N2O＋ （or C4H6NO＋）, C4H5NO＋, C2NO2＋, and C3H5N＋, respectively. With help of theoretical calculations, the detailed dissociation pathways of thymine at low energy are well established.
