Chemical Physics Letters, Vol.355, No.5-6, 538-542, 2002
Depletion modulation of Ar-H2O in a supersonic planar plasma
A sensitive detection technique for tunable diode laser spectroscopy is presented that is suited to study rotationally resolved spectra of weakly bound complexes, The method uses a low energetic plasma source to achieve an efficient concentration modulation in a supersonic planar jet expansion. The method is demonstrated with rotationally resolved spectra of the Pi(1(10)) <-- Sigma(1(01)) and Pi(2(12)) <--Sigma(1(01)) internal rotation/vibration bands of ortho Ar-H2O in the v(2) bend region of H2O. The latter transition has not been reported before and is recorded at 1658.0309(6) cm(-1). (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.