Abstract

Although the mercury halide lasers are of considerable current interest, surprisingly little spectroscopic work has been done on the lasing B(²Σ⁺)→X(²Σ⁺) transitions in the HgX molecules. The main source of information on these systems has been a series of papers published by Wieland over 20 years ago.^1-3 Most of Wieland's work involved sources containing the mercury halides in natural isotopic abundance. To refine the spectroscopic characterization of the HgX molecules, my group has been reanalyzing the emission spectra of these molecules, using sources prepared from single isotopes of Hg and the halogens. Preliminary reports of our work on the B-X systems of HgCl, HgBr, and HgI have been published.^4,5 In this paper I discuss our continuing work on these systems and new work on the C(²Π_1/2) and D(²Π_3/2)-X systems.

© 1983 Optical Society of America