15min:

CHARLES E. MILLER, Department of Chemistry, Haverford College, Haverford, PA 19041-1392; AND EDWARD A. COHEN, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109-8099 .

The rotational spectra of IO in vibrational states up to v=13 in the X₁ ² _3/2 state and up to v=9 in the X₂ ² _1/2 state have been observed in an O₂ discharge over molecular I₂. In addition, I¹⁸ O has been observed for both the X₁ and X₂ states up to v=5. All data have been analyzed simultaneously with fixed isotopic ratios among the constants. This extends the data set for the X₁ state described last year at this meeting and provides the first high resolution data for the X₂ state and for I¹⁸ O. An extensive set of parameters has been derived. These will be interpreted in terms of the electronic structure and the interatomic potential.