GROUND-STATE ROTATIONAL-CONSTANTS OF AR-3+ BY ROTATIONAL DEPLETION COHERENCE SPECTROSCOPY

Rotational depletion coherence spectroscopy permits the determination of ground-state rotational constants of photodissociable ions from orientation recurrences observed for the remaining ions after substantial depletion by a linearly polarized ps pulse of light at wavelengths absorbed by the ions. The method is complementary to ordinary rotational coherence spectroscopy. It has been tested on the (Ar3+)-Ar-40 and (Ar3+)-Ar-36 ions, whose rotational constants are (9.0+/-0.2) x 10(8) s-1 and (10.0+/-0.2) x 10(8) s-1, respectively.