The vacuum ultraviolet spectrum of the bromine molecule

Abstract
The absorption spectrum of bromine has been photographed in the first and higher orders of a 10.7-m. concave vacuum grating spectrograph in the region 1700–1170 Å.A number of band systems have been obtained in the region 1510–1170 Å, most of which correspond to Rydberg transitions. In addition, an extensive band system with closely-spaced bands degraded to longer wavelengths has been recorded in the region 1700–1500 Å. Among the Rydberg systems, five series have been found to converge to 85 165 ± 80 cm−1 which represents the ionization potential of the molecule leading to the 2Π3/2g state of the molecular ion. They arise due to transitions from the ground state to [σg2πu4πg32Π3/2g]npσu, [σg2πug32Π3/2g]npπu, [σg2πu4πg32Π3/2g]nfσu, [σg2πu4πg32Π3/2g]nfπu, and [σg2πu4πg32Π3/2g]nfδu configurations where n takes the running values 5, 6, 7, … etc. The first few members of four similar series corresponding to the transitions to the states involving the [σg2πu4πg32Π1/2g] core have been identified and the ionization limit of these series is estimated to be at 88 306 ± 80 cm−1. Two of the remaining band systems have been found to be very likely due to transitions to the Rydberg states with the configurations [σg2πu3πg42Π3/2u]5sσg and [σg2πu3πg42Π1/2u]5sσg, respectively. Three of the observed systems which do not involve Rydberg states appear to have for their upper levels the 1Πu(1u), 3Π(1u), and 3Π(0u+) states arising from the configuration σgπu3πg4σu2.
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