AN ANALYSIS OF THE $A^{2}\Sigma^{+} - X^{2}\Pi_{i}$ BAND SYSTEM OF OT

Abstract

The $A^{2}\Sigma^{+} - X^{2}\Pi_{i}$ band system of OT has been photographed in high resolution. Nonlinear least-squares fits of $^{2}\Sigma$ and $^{2}\Pi$ Hamiltonians have been made to each of the observed fourteen bands. Particular attention was given to determining the constants representing the various centrifugal distortion interactions. The bands typically could be fit to a standard deviation of $0.02 cm^{-1}$, which is comparable to the estimated experimental uncertainty. These resulting band-by-band values have been combined using a correlated least-squares fit to obtain minimum variance values for each of the molecular constants for the vibrational levels $\nu^{\prime} \leq 4$ and $\nu"" \leq 3$. These molecular constants, and the Dunham coefficients deduced from them, are compared to those of the OH and OD molecules.