LASER SPECTROSCOPY OF HOLMIUM CONTAINING MOLECULES.

Author Institution: University of New Brunswick; Physics Department, University of New Brunswick; Physics Department, University of New Brunswick; Department of Chemistry, B\^atiment A. Kastler, Universit\'e Lyon I; Laboratoire de Spectrom\'etrie Ionique et Mol\'eculaire (UMR 5579 CNRS), B\^atiment A. Kastler, Universit\'e Lyon IAs part of a continuing investigation of the properties and structure of lanthanide molecules, a laser spectroscopic study of holmium containing molecules is presently in progress. A laser ablation source is used to obtain low resolution survey spectra using pulsed lasers, and high resolution spectra are obtained with both laser ablation and oven sources using a cw ring laser. The results of the survey and high resolution studies will be presented. At present, high resolution spectra have been obtained for several bands of the $A9 - X8$ and $B8 - X8$ transitions of $HoF$ and the $A9 - X8$ transition of $HoCl$. All of the transitions show hyperfine structure due to the $I = 3.5$ spin of the Holmium nucleus. The results of the analyses of the rotational and hyperfine structure will be presented and discussed in terms of the electron configurations of the electronic states