MOLECULAR BEAM OBSERVATIONS OF HYPERFINE TRANSITIONS IN KOH

Work supported by a Northwest Area Foundation Grant of the Research Corporation and NSF RUI Grants PHY-8319293 and PHY-8617538.Author Institution: Physics Department, St. Olaf CollegeWe have used a molecular beam electric resonance spectrometer to measure radio-frequency transitions in KOH. Both pure hyperfine transitions (arising primarily from the potassium nuclear quadrupole interaction) and transitions between the 1 doublet states have been observed. The spectrum indicates that the hydrogen spin-rotation interaction is opposite in sign to that of fluorine in KF. and amaller in magnitude by about a factor of ten. Further work is continuing so that we can present a more detailed analysis of the spectrum