15min:

TODD C. MELVILLE, Department of Chemistry, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3H 4J3, Canada; IOULI GORDON, KEITH A. TERESZCHUK, PETER F. BERNATH, Guelph-Waterloo Centre for Graduate Work in Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3G1 Canada; JOHN A. COXON, Department of Chemistry, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3H 4J3, Canada.

The emission spectrum of gas-phase YbO has been investigated using a Fourier transform spectrometer. Chemiluminescence was observed from excited YbO molecules produced in a Broida-type oven by the reaction of ytterbium metal vapour with N₂O. A total of 8 red-degraded bands in the range 9800 - 11300 cm^-1 were recorded at a resolution of 0.04 cm^-1. Because of the multiple isotopomers present in the spectra, only 3 bands were rotationally analyzed. Perturbations were identified in two of these bands and all 3 transitions were found to terminate at the shapeX ^{1 +} ground electronic state. The electronic configurations that give rise to the observed states are investigated and molecular parameters for all of the analyzed bands will be presented.