VISIBLE LASER EXCITATION SPECTROSCOPY OF YbOH

Author Institution: Department of Chemistry, Dalhousie University; Department of Chemistry, Dalhousie UniversityLaser excitation spectroscopy has been employed in the first observation of the visible $\tilde{A}^{2}\Pi-\tilde{X}^{2}\Sigma$ electronic transition of YbOH. YbOH radicals were produced in a Broida-type oven by the reaction of ytterbium metal vapor with $H_{2}O_{2}$ vapor. A Coherent 599 dye laser operating in broadband mode ($1 cm^{-1}$bandwidth) was used to investigate the vibrational structure of the $\tilde{A} - \tilde{X}$ system at low-resolution. The output of a Coherent 699-29 ring dye laser operating in single frequency mode was used with selective detection of fluorescence to record high-resolution spectra of the $000 - 000$ and $000 - 100$ bands in the range $575 - 595$ nm; the measurement accuracy of the line positions was $0.003 cm^{-1}$. The results are consistent with a linear structure for YbOH. The vibrational and rotational analysis of the $\tilde{A} - \tilde{X}$ transition will be discussed