Knowledge Bank

The Raman spectrum of solid fluorine has been investigated for the first time. As expected, because of the random molecular orientations on the lattice sites, only the fundamental stretching vibrations is observed for $\beta -F2$. The stretching fundamental and the first overtone are both present in the spectrum of the lower temperature solid phase, and the lattice modes observed for $\alpha -F2$ are in accord with predictions based on the crystal structure determined by x-ray diffraction. Experimental techniques for safely handling solid $F2$ will be discussed.