Knowledge Bank

The short-lived species $S2O$ may be prepared in a flow system by passing argon containing a small amount of sulphur vapor and oxygen through a microwave discharge. Various bands at the long wavelength end of the 3400 \AA \ system of $S2O$ have been photographed at high dispersion. The excited state levels are found to be predissociated homogeneously above 31 200 $cm-1$, but the rotational structure is sharp and apparently unperturbed at lower energy. Preliminary results from the rotational analysis show that the bands are type A-B hybrids, so that the transition is $\mathrm{<mrow\; data-mjx-texclass="ORD">1</mrow>}A\prime -1A\prime$; the bands are strongly red-degraded, with the rotational constant A dropping from $1.40cm-1$ in the ground state to about $0.82cm-1$ in the upper state. The $\mathrm{<mrow\; data-mjx-texclass="ORD">1</mrow>}A\prime$ upper state appears to be the analogue of the $C\sim \mathrm{<mrow\; data-mjx-texclass="ORD">1</mrow>}B2$ upper state of the 2350 \AA \ bands of $SO2$.