Knowledge Bank

The emission spectrum of CuOH consist of a strong green band and some weaker bands in the red. Trkula and Harris1 recorded the high resolution spectrum of the green system. We have detected the weaker red bands by dye laser spectroscopy. CuOH was produced in a Broida oven by the reaction of Cu metal vapor with $H2O2$. A low resolution laser exitation spectrum showed that there are two distinct electronic transitions. Both of these transitions were then investigated at higher resolution using a single frequency dye laser. One system centered at 6285\AA revealed a very dense spectrum with no band heads. This system appears to obey parallel selection rules and we assign it to the lowest-lying singlet-singlet transition $A2A-x1A$. High resolution spectra of the other system near 6600\AA showed that the individual rotational lines were split into four components by the nuclear spin $I-3/2$ of Cu. The magnitude of this effect indicates that the upper electronic state has triplet character. Our preliminary analysis of both electronic systems will be discussed.