Knowledge Bank

Initial experiments done and experiences gained with a recently acquired BOMEM DA3.002 Fourier transform spectrometer are described. To facilitate testing of the new instrument we chose to record and analyze the spectrum of cyanogen which is known from previous studies at low resolution to have a relatively dense but theoretically well behaved spectrum. The region of the $\nu 3$ band near $2150cm-1$ was recorded with an apodized resolution of $0.004cm-1$ using gas pressures of 1, 5, and 20 torr and a path length of 20 cm. The v band as well as several associated hot bands were analyzed. The $\nu 3$ band of OCS near $2062cm3-1$, present as a trace impurity in the $C2N2$ gas, was also observed up to $J\sim 40$ and was used to calibrate the $C2N2$ spectrum using measured OCS frequencies reported elsewhere [1]. The $\nu 5$ band of $C2N2$ near $233cm-1$ was recorded using a gas pressure of 3 torr and path length of 20 cm. Efforts are underway to record this band with improved signal to noise ratio.