VIBRATIONAL STRUCTURE IN THE $B^{4}\Pi \leftarrow X^{4}\Sigma^{-}$ ELECTRONIC TRANSITION OF NbO

Author Institution: Department of Chemistry, University of British ColumbiaDuring our studies of niobium methylidyne, NbCH, we were continually faced with the presence of the much stronger and frequently overlapping niobium oxide spectrum. This motivated us to begin a through investigation of NbO throughout the visible region in order to document the somewhat irregular nature of the vibrational structure of its electronic spectrum. The (n,0) bands, where n=1, 2, 3, of the $B^{4}\Pi \leftarrow X^{4} \Sigma^{-}$ electronic transition were recorded at high resolution. Two (3,1) hot band transitions corresponding to the $B^{4}\Pi_{-1/2} \leftarrow X^{4} \Sigma^{-}_{3/2}$ and $B^{4}\Pi_{1/2} \leftarrow X^{4} \Sigma^{-}_{1/2}$ sub bands were also studied using high resolution methods. The vibrational dependencies of the rotational and hyperfine structure as well as other interesting aspects of the spectra will be presented