High-Resolution Emission Vegard—Kaplan Bands of Nitrogen

Abstract

A laboratory light source was developed which emits the forbidden Vegard—Kaplan bands of nitrogen with sufficient intensity for a high‐resolution spectrograph. The triplet splitting of the A ³Σ_u⁺ state was well resolved and shown to be in very good agreement with theoretical calculations. Very precise band origins and molecular constants were determined from three of the Vegard—Kaplan bands. An effective source temperature was obtained from the intensity distribution.