Knowledge Bank

Electronic bands of the new molecules LaNH and LaND have been observed by laser-induced fluorescence following the reaction of laser-ablated La metal with $NH3$ or $ND3$ under supersonic jet-cooled conditions. High-resolution data for LaNH show that the ground state is $\mathrm{<mrow\; data-mjx-texclass="ORD">2</mrow>}\Sigma +(bg^s)$ with $B0=0.305478(22)cm-1$. Extensive dispersed fluorescence data have given ground state vibrational frequencies for LaNH (LaND): $\nu 2(bend)=462(354)cm-1$ and $\nu 3(La-Nstretch)=755(744)cm-1$. Two electronic systems with origins near 658 and 823 nm, both of which appear to have $\mathrm{<mrow\; data-mjx-texclass="ORD">2</mrow>}\Pi$ upper states, have been identified from spectra in the 525 -- 875 nm region.