Knowledge Bank

Nickel monoxide remains one of the spectroscopically least well characterized of first row transition metal monoxides. Spectra of NiO have been recorded in the 425 - 480nm region following the reaction of a laser-ablated nickel metal plasma with traces of $O2$ doped in helium. Eighteen bands have been observed in laser-induced fluorescence (LIF), the majority of which belong to systems classified by $PearseandGaydoa$ as VI and VII. The isotopomers $\mathrm{<mrow\; data-mjx-texclass="ORD">58</mrow>}NiO$ and $\mathrm{<mrow\; data-mjx-texclass="ORD">60</mrow>}NiO$ are seen in natural abundance and isotope shifts and rotational constants help to establish assignments. Dispersed fluorescence measurements have been made using excitation corresponding to strong LIF features. No low-lying excited electronic states have been detected but the ground state vibrational manifold can be mapped up to $v=9$.