Fourier-transform spectroscopy of Sr2 and revised ground state potential

TL;DR

This study uses high-resolution Fourier-transform spectroscopy to accurately determine the ground and excited state potentials of Sr2, leading to revised molecular models and new scattering length estimations for various isotopomers.

Contribution

The paper provides a revised ground state potential for Sr2 with a significant shift towards longer distances, based on extensive isotopomer data and improved spectroscopic analysis.

Findings

Revised ground state potential with longer interatomic distances.

Accurate scattering length estimations for multiple isotopomers.

Derived excited state potential energy curve around the minimum.

Abstract

Precise potentials for the ground state X1Sigma+g and the minimum region of the excited state 2_1Sigma+u of Sr2 are derived by high resolution Fourier-transform spectroscopy of fluorescence progressions from single frequency laser excitation of Sr2 produced in a heat pipe at 950 Celsius. A change of the rotational assignment by four units compared to an earlier work (G. Gerber, R. M\"oller, and H. Schneider, J. Chem. Phys. 81, 1538 (1984)) is needed for a consistent description leading to a significant shift of the potentials towards longer inter atomic distances. The huge amount of ground state data derived for the three different isotopomers 88Sr2, 86Sr88Sr and 87Sr88Sr (almost 60% of all excisting bound rovibrational ground state levels for the isotopomer 88Sr2) fixes this assignment undoubtedly. The presented ground state potential is derived from the observed transitions for the radial region from 4 to 11 A (9 cm-1 below the asymptote) and is extended to the longe range region by the use of theoretical dispersion coefficients together with already available photoassociation data. New estimations of the scattering lengths for the complete set of isotopic combinations are derived by mass scaling with the derived potential. The data set for the excited state 2_1Sigma+u was sufficient to derive a potential energy curve around the minimum.