Electric-quadrupole and magnetic-dipole contributions to the n2+n3 band of carbon dioxide near 3.3 micron

TL;DR

This study detects and analyzes electric-quadrupole and magnetic-dipole transitions in CO2 near 3.3 microns, highlighting their significance for atmospheric modeling and the need to include these weak transitions in spectroscopic databases.

Contribution

The paper provides the first experimental detection and quantification of E2 and M1 transitions in the n2+n3 band of CO2, supported by ab initio calculations, emphasizing their importance in atmospheric spectroscopy.

Findings

E2 and M1 transitions are detected in CO2 near 3.3 microns.

E2 intensities agree with ab initio calculations.

M1 line intensities match long-path Fourier Transform measurements.

Abstract

The recent detections of electric-quadrupole (E2) transitions in water vapor and magnetic-dipole (M1) transitions in carbon dioxide have opened a new field in molecular spectroscopy. While in their present status, the spectroscopic databases provide only electric-dipole (E1) transitions for polyatomic molecules (H2O, CO2, N2O, CH4, O3), the possible impact of weak E2 and M1 bands to the modeling of the Earth and planetary atmospheres has to be addressed. This is especially important in the case of carbon dioxide for which E2 and M1 bands may be located in spectral windows of weak E1 absorption. In the present work, a high sensitivity absorption spectrum of CO2 was recorded by optical feedback cavity enhanced absorption Spectroscopy (OFCEAS) in the 3.3 micron transparency window of carbon dioxide. The studied spectral interval corresponds to the region where M1 transitions of the n2+n3 band of carbon dioxide were recently identified in the spectrum of the Martian atmosphere. Here, both M1 and E2 transitions of the n2+n3 band were detected by OFCEAS. Using recent ab initio calculations of the E2 spectrum of 12C16O2, intensity measurements of five M1 lines and three E2 lines allow us to disentangle the M1 and E2 contributions. Indeed, E2 intensity values (on the order of a few 10-29 cm per molecule) are found in reasonable agreement with ab initio calculations while the intensity of the M1 lines (including an E2 contribution) agree very well with recent very long path measurements by Fourier Transform spectroscopy. We thus conclude that both E2 and M1 transitions should be systematically incorporated in the CO2 line list provided by spectroscopic databases.