Abstract

We have measured the vibrational-rotational spectrum of the negative molecular ion NH⁻ using a coaxial ion beam/laser beam spectrometer. A 2–5-keV beam of a few nanoamperes of NH⁻, produced in a hot-cathode discharge source from the source gas HN³, is overlapped coaxially by a tunable IR laser beam from a Burleigh FCL-20 laser. Resonant vibrational-rotational transitions near 3000 cm⁻¹ are driven from ν = 0 to ν = 1. The upper level autodetaches producing a fast neutral.

© 1986 Optical Society of America